Leimakhong Heavy Fuel Power Project a non-starter
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 12 2014: Of all the engines installed at Heavy Fuel Power Project, Leimakhong, only one is functional at present.

The heavy fuel power project was taken up with 100 per cent funding by the Centre.

Construction of the power plant started in 1989 and it was inaugurated and commissioned on October 5, 2002 by President APJ Abdul Kalam.

The project was meant to be put into service at the time of emergency.

The power plant has six engines with generation capacity of 6 MW each.

But the engines were hardly put into service during the last 10 years as the price of per unit of power generated by the plant became very high because of hike in the price of fuel.

The project was executed by Heavy Electrical Limited at the cost of Rs 126 crore which was sanctioned under Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources.

But not long after the project was commissioned, components of the power generation engines started breaking down, informed a source.

Of the six engines installed at the plant, only one is functional at present.

Efforts of the department to repair the non-functional engines have proved futile so far.

These engines have certain components manufactured by a foreign country while some others were manufactured in India.

As such, the engines cannot be easily repaired when any of its components break down or develop technical snags.

During a meeting of the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission, a poser was raised on keeping the heavy fuel power project non-operational.

To this, the department said that they faced severe difficulties in maintaining water conductor system of the engines installed there, conveyed the source.

However, one Power Department official maintained that all the engines are in running condition.

They are put out of service because per unit of power generated by the plant costs Rs 30 .

At the time when the project was taken up, price of heavy fuel was just Rs 8 but it has now jumped to Rs 35 per litre, added the source.

Comment