The capital city of Tripura, Agartala, is set to have underground power transmission lines by March 2025, as part of a project to improve the power supply and distribution in the state. Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath stated in a written reply in the Assembly in reply to a question raised by CPIM MLA Jiten Choudhury during the Winter session on Tuesday.
According to Nath, the project aims to lay 312.81 km of underground power transmission lines under different schemes in Agartala. So far, work progressed in 22.9 km and the rest is expected to be done by the deadline.
The underground power transmission lines will reduce the chances of power outages due to mechanical faults or bad weather.
Nath also claimed that there is no load shedding in the state, even during the peak hours, as Tripura have enough electricity supply to meet its demand.
According to him, the main reasons behind localised power disruptions are mechanical snags in the sub-stations or the transmission lines and inclement weather.
He said that the state produces 727-762 MW of electricity from various sources, out of which the highest, 530-540 MW, comes from the Palatana gas-based power plant. Other sources include Monarchak gas-based power plant (86 MW), Ramchandra Nagar gas turbine power plant (80 MW) and Barmura thermal power plant (20 MW).
He further said that the entire production from Ramchandra Nagar and Palatana power plants are fed into the Eastern grid, from where Tripura receives its share of electricity. In addition, the state also imports electricity from other power stations outside the state, such as Loktak, Kapili and Kapili-2 etc.