Tripura Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath Saturday said the state government was planning to ramp up solar energy production to meet future power needs.
Speaking at an awareness camp on the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana at Kailasahar in Unakoti district, Nath informed that the power department was working for the revival of the Dumboor plant.
He also stated that Rukhia, Palatana, Ramchandra Nagar, and Monarchak plants were generating less power due to a lack of gas supply.
“In Tripura, power is generated from gas. We used to generate three megawatt power in Dumboor. This plant was damaged in the floods last year. Now, we are working to restore the plant and use it to generate 11 megawatt of electricity. We need to prepare for the future. That’s why both the central and the state governments are working on solar power,” said Nath.
“This (PM Surya Ghar) is a huge scheme. There are 10 lakh consumers. We targeted to install solar panels at 50,000 houses so that 150 megawatt power can be generated,” Nath added.
The minister, however, stated that only 40 per cent of consumers paid their power bills in April. On average, 46.1 per cent of power consumers in the state regularly pay their bills, he added.
