Thaindian News

Agartala, Jan 23 (IANS) Tripura will electrify all hamlets that have less than 100 habitants by 2013 as these settlements are not covered by the central government’s rural electrification programme, a minister said here Monday.

“The state government has asked the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited to identify those habitats soon,” Power Minister Manik Dey told reporters here.

“There is no provision in the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) to electrify those human habitations having population less then 100. All the eight mountainous northeastern states, including Tripura, have thousands of such hamlets,” he noted.

The RGGVY was launched in 2005 by the union ministry of power as one of its flagship programmes with the objective to electrify over one lakh villages and to provide free electricity connections to 2.34 crore rural poor households.

Dey recalled that when Tripura became a full-fledged state in 1972, it was generating less than one megawatt of power against the total demand of three MW.

“The state is now generating 106 MW against the peak hour demand of 220 MW,” he said.

According to the minister, Tripura would become a power surplus state by May this year after installation of two big thermal power projects - 726 MW and 105 MW - in southern and western Tripura respectively.

The state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is commissioning its first mega commercial power project (726 MW) - the largest in the northeastern region - at southern Tripura’s Palatana, 60 km from Agartala. The plant would start power generation by May this year.

Another public sector company, North Eastern Electric Power Corp (NEEPCO), also is commissioning a 105 MW capacity combined cycle power project at Monarchak in western Tripura, 65 km from Agartala.

The state government on its own has been installing a 21 MW capacity gas based thermal power project at Rokhia in western Tripura and it would start generating electricity by next year.