By IANS,
Agartala: The Tripura government has sought aid of Rs.11 billion from the World Bank to improve the power scenario in the northeastern state, an official said here Tuesday.
“The Tripura government has submitted a Rs.1,102 crore proposal to the World Bank through the union power ministry to improve the electricity distribution system in the state,” power department official U.K. Chakma told reporters.
“State-owned PGCIL (Power Grid Corporation of India Limited) has prepared the detail project report of the Rs.1,102 crore proposal, which is being studied by the World Bank now,” he added.
A five-member World Bank team, headed by Rohit Mittal, senior energy specialist for India, arrived here Monday. The team Tuesday held a series of meetings with state Power Minister Manik Dey and senior government officials, including Chief Secretary S.K. Panda.
According to Chakma, out of Rs.1,102 crore, the central government would give 10 percent, five percent would be borne by the state government and the remaining 85 percent would be given by the World Bank. Of the total allocation of the World Bank, 10 percent would be loan and 90 percent would be a grant.
The state government had proposed to modernise all power transmission lines, set up new power stations and erect underground power supply lines and other related infrastructure work as part of the overall development of the power distribution system.
The modernisation work and extension of power transmission lines have been necessitated in view of the under-commissioning of two mega thermal power projects in Tripura – Palatana (726 MW) and Monarchak (104 MW) – which are expected to be commissioned by 2012 and 2014, respectively.
The gas-based Palatana power project in southern Tripura is being commissioned by the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) at a cost of Rs.9,000 crore at Palatana, 60 km south of Agartala.
The Monarchak power project is being executed by the public sector company North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) at Sonamura in western Tripura at a cost of Rs.421 crore.