Agartala, June 1 (IANS) Tripura Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath on Sunday said that 95 per cent of the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded power distribution strengthening work in the state has been completed, while the remaining work is expected to be finished by June.

Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs and Power Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday reviewed power and urban development projects with Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha and Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath.

After the meeting, Minister Nath also said that the installation of smart meters across the state would be completed by October this year. He informed that works under the PM-JANMAN (Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan) scheme have already been completed, while projects under DA-JGUA (Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh) are about 90 per cent complete and are expected to be finished by June.

Nath, who also holds the Agriculture portfolio, said that Tripura’s current peak electricity demand stands at 542 MW. Of this, the state has an availability of 365 MW, while the remaining 177 MW is procured from the power market, he noted and said that the availability of power in the state is primarily affected by inadequate natural gas supply.

“The financial assistance provided by the Central Government has been highly beneficial for the state. As a result, the Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) loss, which stood at around 40 per cent in 2018, has been reduced significantly to 18.23 per cent at present,” the Minister said.

He said that, in line with the Centre’s directives, smart meter installation is progressing rapidly across the state. Smart meters have already been installed on all 11 KV feeders and distribution transformers. “So far, 3,55,158 consumers have been connected to smart meters, while the remaining 2,16,144 consumers will be brought under the system by October this year,” the Minister said.

Nath further informed that prepaid meters have been installed in 5,894 government offices across the state. Besides this, there are 5,347 stand-alone prepaid meters, while a total of 1,59,013 stand-alone prepaid meters have been installed in Tripura.

“Tripura is the first state in the country to introduce prepaid meters on such a scale,” he said. Highlighting the progress of various power sector projects, Nath said that 95 per cent of the loss-reduction works being undertaken under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) have already been completed, and the remaining works will be finished by July.

“The work under PM-JANMAN has been completed. The work under DA-JGUA has achieved 90 per cent progress and will be completed by June. The distribution strengthening project being implemented with ADB assistance has also achieved 95 per cent completion, and the remaining work is expected to be completed by June,” he said.

The Minister also announced that, with financial assistance from the ADB, the state is upgrading the existing 63 MW open-cycle gas turbine power plant at Rukhia into a 120 MW combined-cycle gas turbine project at an estimated cost of Rs 1,320 crore.

“This project is expected to be completed by March 2029 and will significantly enhance Tripura’s power generation capacity,” Nath said.

He further informed that under the Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, rooftop solar power systems with a cumulative capacity of 12.11 MW have already been installed in the state. The government has set a target of achieving 150 MW of rooftop solar capacity under the scheme.

–IANS

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