By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Even though the first phase of the Myntdu Leshka Hydro Electric Project (MLHEP) began its power generation in November last year, the official commissioning of the first phase may take some more time.
Informing this here on Friday, Chief Project Manager of MLHEP, Elias Lyngdoh said that there are some issues of land compensation as well as the regularization of labourers which needs to be sorted out before the official inauguration of the first phase.
“We are not in a hurry to officially commission the project and we would like to first sort out the issues,” Elias Lyngdoh added.
The preliminary exercise of spinning the machines and the synchronization work has been completed and at present 42 MW is being pumped out from the power plan.
It is learnt that that the process for regularization of non-technical Grade IV staff is on and the department is trying hard to complete the entire process as soon as possible.
Reacting to a query about the power shortage, the official informed that the power scenario will be far far better than what it is presently after the commissioning of the second and third phase of the project.
According to Lyngdoh, the second phase(42 mw) would be commissioned in February while the third phase would be commissioned in the month of July or August.
The present output of 42 MW is not enough to cater to the growing demand of power in the State.
“We will still be short of power supply during dry seasons but it would be far better than what is the situation now,” he added.
The total cost of the 126 mw Myntdu Leshka Hydro Electric project (MLHEP) has escalated almost three times thanks to the several delays in the commissioning of the project.
The total cost of project has escalated to Rs 965 crore against the original estimated cost of Rs 360 crore since the material and equipments were quite cheap when the project got under way and but now cost of equipments has gone up over the years.
While many have raised questions over the delay in the commissioning of the first phase of the project, the official informed that the officials in New Delhi have appreciated the work of Myntdu Leskha project being the fastest power project in the North East region to be commissioned.