ONGC plans Rs 3500 cr Tripura power project

The state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has firmed up a plan to set up a 700 megawatt gas-based power project in Tripura at an estimated about Rs 3,500 crore.

Subir Raha, chairman and managing director, said this would be the first independent power project by the company. The project would be funded and operated by ONGC.

The upstream major will partner Power Trading Corporation, Infrastructure Leasing and Finance Corporation (IL&FS) for the project. While a special purpose vehicle could be set up with IL&FS for project facilitation, PTC would come in as a trading partner for sale of electricity.

However, ONGC has said that it would require financial sops from the Centre under North-East development schemes as well from Tripura government to make the project viable. "The payment security for power is most important. To ensure that we need assistance from government," Raha said.

ONGC will carry out an independent appraisal of the techno-commercial viablity of the project by a consultant. The entire process could take six months.

The company said the logistic cost of erecting a power plant in Tripura would be very high as items would have to be moved from mainland India. Moreover, power has to be wheeled out of Tripura to north eastern grid and then to eastern grid since consumption in Tripura might not be very high.

"We have to see that the landed cost of power at any given place is competitive with other sources of power. We need to discuss the issue with Power Grid Corporation," he added.