Agartala: The 101 megawatt gas-based thermal power project at Monarchak in Sipahijala, commissioned by NEEPCO, is ready for generation, but cannot be made operational due to non-supply of gas by ONGC, an official said on Friday.
"The gas turbine of Monarchak Project was made ready in September 2013 for commissioning activities. It was put on record that after receipt of gas, North East Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) would require around two months to synchronise the gas turbine on an open cycle mode," S R Biswas, General Manager & Head of Project, NEEPCO, said.
The breach of contract by ONGC has made commissioning utterly uncertain, he added.
Biswas added, "It is seen that ONGC, instead of taking needful action for commencing the suspended work, is more concerned with attempt to falsely prove that NEEPCO Project is not ready for taking gas."
In this connection, it is emphasised that ONGC has no authority to intervene in the matter of readiness of NEEPCO project or otherwise, he said.
NEEPCO welcomes any independent authority to inspect the works of the project and commits to pass on relevant information with absolute transparency, Biswas added.
"The fire fighting system has already been established inside the project premises while 132 KV power substation was also ready and the remaining works could be completed after getting gas from ONGC. It would take two months time to make the project fully operational after supply of gas from ONGC," he said.
Earlier on June 17 last, the Asset Manager of Tripura unit of ONGC, V P Mahawar in a press conference here had alleged that the Monarchak project was not made ready for charging of gas by ONGC, but it was their claim they were incurring heavy loss everyday as ONGC was not supplying gas.
Mahawar had further said, "We have never claimed that we are ready to supply gas to Monarchak project. We can supply gas within three months time. But, NEEPCO is unnecessarily blaming us, when their own project is not ready to accept gas and fire fighting system was not installed."
