Agartala (Tripura), June 30: Tripura is planning to use drones to trace usage of hook lines and use new technology for power restoration on live wires without affecting power supply.
Besides, the State Power department is also working on ensuring undisrupted and dedicated power supply to hospitals across the State, said Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath today.
Cautioning the genuine power consumers, the Minister urged people to work together to get rid of the hook line usages. Besides, he said, “We will take advantage of drone technology to locate existence of hook lines”.
The Power Minister made the statement during inauguration of the 33 KV Sub-station at Ranir Bazar under the West Tripura District. The sub-station was constructed under the NER Power System Improvement Project at an expense of Rs 10.70 crore.
Nath emphasized utilization of modern technological advancement and said, “We will use new technology to restore power on live lines without disconnecting the power”.
In his speech, the Minister revealed a significant project and said, “The Power department is planning to arrange dedicated power supply to Ranirbazar Hospital as well as to other hospitals ensuring disruption-free electricity”.
Explaining a shift in sources of power generation, Nath said coal, gas, water, wind, and solar energy are usually used for power generation.
“In our state, we generate power from gas which like coal is slowly depleting. We have shifted our focus to giving connections through solar power following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision,” he said.
Armed with statistics, Nath compared pre-2018 period and post-2018 when BJP came into power in Tripura.
“There were around 7 lakh power consumers in Tripura before 2018 which jumped by 3.31 lakh to total 10.31 during the last seven years after 2018″, the Minister said.
He made elaborate comparison on number of 11 KV, 33 KV sub-stations and extension of 132 KV line to 986 km from pre-2018 period’s 485 km.
As per the statistics mentioned by the Minister, “Earlier, there was only 95 km of underground cable which is now 571 km. There were no prepaid meters earlier but, at present, there are 1,61,700 prepaid meters.
From zero number of smart meters earlier, the number reached 71,946 smart meters now. They (previous governments before 2018) had not done anything for the development of the power sector, but we are now thinking in a different way.” said Minister Nath.
Ratan Lal Nath further also revealed about a plan to construct a 400 kV sub-station in Suryamaninagar (near Agartala) to strengthen the internal grid and additional power demand in future.
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“A modernization project of power transmission infrastructure worth Rs. 1,800 crore is underway. Out of a total of 9 new 132 kV substations, 8 have been completed and 1 is under construction.
Capacity of 7 old 132 kV substations is being increased. New technology cables are being added to old lines from Agartala 79 Tilla to Rukhia,” Nath concluded.
