Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Agartala, Oct 17 (IANS) Tripura, one of the power surplus states in the northeastern region, is keen to supply power to Nepal, state power and agriculture minister Ratan Lal Nath said here on Friday.
The minister shared this information after inaugurating the 132 KV Gokulnagar power sub-station under the North Eastern Region (NER) Electricity System Improvement Project at Gokulnagar Rastarmatha Sports Ground in Sipahijala district.
He said that work is going on on the plan to export power from Tripura to Nepal and for this a meeting was held in New Delhi on Friday, on which the final decision will be taken by the Central Government.
Although Tripura does not share a border with Nepal, the Himalayan nation shares a 1,751 km long border with five Indian states – Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Tripura, which shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, is currently supplying more than 100 MW of power to the neighboring country. Tripura started supplying 100 MW of power to Bangladesh from the state-owned ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC) power plant in Gomati district of southern Tripura in March 2016.
An official of Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) said, the supply sometimes goes up to 160 MW.
“After the first agreement in 2016, we renewed the agreement twice to continue supplying electricity to Bangladesh,” he said.
He said the Bangladesh government has recently requested TSECL to supply at least 250 MW of power to help meet its growing power demand. The official said, a final decision has not been taken yet on Bangladesh’s new proposal.
Energy Minister Nath said that with the availability of natural gas decreasing, TSECL is introducing new technologies to increase production efficiency.
“With the help of the World Bank, an investment of Rs 935 crore is being made to double the power generation using the same amount of gas through combined cycle gas turbine technology at Rokhia in Sepahijala district.
“We have also decided to set up an 800 MW pumped storage power project at Chawmanu in Dhalai district and preparation of the detailed project report (DPR) is underway,” he said.
The minister said a 400 KV sub-station would be set up at Suryamani Nagar near here as Tripura continues to supply electricity to Bangladesh.
He further said that the State Government has taken an ambitious initiative to connect all the government offices with rooftop solar power plants to meet their power requirements.
–IANS
SC/And