UDAIPUR, August 11(TIWN): According to TIWN sources, BHEL will go for 15 days complete shutdown in Unit-I from 20th August. Actually the shut down was scheduled to be held in July but due to acute power shortage in Tripura, Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited(TSECL) and state govt requested the high officials OTPC and North Eastern Regional Load Dispatch Centre(NERLDC) to cancel that shut down up to independence day. Accordingly OTPC and NERLDC responded promptly and cancelled the shut down. But now NERLDC sent instruction to start the Major Combustion Inspection of Gas Turbine.

According  to an OTPC engineer," It is compulsory to go for major inspection of Gas Turbine after 8000 hours of operation. During this inspection the technicians of the USA based General Electric( Gas Turbine manufacturing company) of Atlanta will examine the combustion chamber of the turbine. It is a mandatory process." Already the time has been expired and it will be risky to postpone the inspection any farther.

On 21st June 2013,  President of India Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Commercial General from Unit-1 of 726.6MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine(CCGT) Thermal Power Project in Palatana and ONGC CMD Sudhir Vasudeva said on this occasion," From today Tripura is a surplus power state and load shedding will be a history." Ironically even before the helicopter of the President left the sky of Udaipur, Unit-1 had gone for complete shutdown. And again the return of that humiliating episode is on the cards as the Chief Minister Manik Sarkar officially invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the Commercial Generation from Unit-II. Is the plant ready for Commercial Generation from Unit-II ?

Reacting to this invitation a BHEL top level engineer laughed at saying," Yes, Unit-II of the plant is ready for Commercial Generation as was the case with the Unit-I in June last year. How can the Chief Minister invite the Prime Minister for inauguration remains a mystery to me, especially after the horrible experience from Unit-I ? No one knows but the truth is that Pranab Mukherjee could only inaugurate the Commercial Generation as ONGC had brought six high power generators to the plant site eyeing the reality then. As soon as the President left the plant site, all the six generators were instantly stopped and there was complete shutdown in power generation for more than a month. "

      Already suffering with acute power shortage Tripura is bound to go through another phase of frequent power cuts at least for a down of fifteen days. Two technicians of  USA based General Electric company are stationed at the plant site and within a few days a group of experts are coming here, adds TIWN sources. In that case it is highly unlikely that Unit-II will start commercial production before Mid-October, though ONGC Tripura Asset Manager V P Mahawar recently told media persons that gas supply to the Unit-II will begin from September.

      As of now Unit-II is not in a position for Commercial Generation. At present not even the preliminary works have been completed. TIWN sources add that even if ONGC starts regular and uninterrupted gas supply to Unut-II , BHEL engineers will take more than one and half months to make the plant ready . Actually the trial run too will have to give satisfactory results. And if gas supply makes problems like dust particles , the entire process will be delayed. Now the question is why has the Chief Minister Manik Sarkar invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for inaugurating the Unit -II?

     The experts opine that  hurried inauguration plan by CM is purely to generate political mileage - rather than improvement of power situation in State. Recently Chief Minister has declared officially to give Bangladesh 100MW power supply from Tripura's surplus. It is obvious if the Commercial Generation from the Unit-II is inaugurated officially, naturally it will be covered by national and international media considering the Indo-Bangla bi-lateral relationship that will be enhanced if power supply to Bangladesh indeed starts in projected time. And Manik Sarkar too has a moral obligation towards Bangladesh after receiving the ' Friends of Liberation War' Honour from Bangladesh on behalf of Tripura people last year . Thus, invitation to the Prime Minister is more of a political agenda on the part  CM  than the actual ground situation.