Operations of Palatana power plant likely to start in January

PTI
Agartala, December 30

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he much-awaited commercial operations of the first phase of Palatana power plant in Tripura are likely to start by the first week of next month, official sources said.The first unit of the plant today produced 315 MW, which is a positive sign for taking up commercial production.
Presently the power produced in the plant is being directed to the Northeast Power Grid, sources said.
S K Dube, managing director of ONGC Tripura Power Corporation (OTPC), who has been supervising the operation of the Palatana power project since the past two days, said “The plant is operational for the past three days without any trouble.
“We had declared Commercial Date of Operation (COD) earlier, but could not start it due to various reasons. This time we are taking cautious steps.” One of the biggest power projects in the Northeast region, the Palatana power plant has been struggling for sometime now and even after the formal inauguration by President Pranab Mukherjee on June 21 last, the project was shut down due to technical faults leading to suspension of operation for four months.
It was only due to the continuous work done by OTPC, BHEL and ONGC that the glitches were removed, sources said. However, transmission of power from the plant might face more hurdles as the 400 KV transmission line has not been extended up to Bongaigoan (National Power Grid). It means, power from the plant can only reach Silchar as the transmission line from Palatana and Silchar has already been fixed, sources added.