Pradyut Bordoloi at a news conference on Monday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, Sept. 29: A state, which flares natural gas worth nearly Rs 10 lakh per day, is set to get its third gas-based thermal power plant.

Flaring is the burning of natural gas and is a common practice in the oilfields of Upper Assam.

Assam power minister Pradyut Bordoloi today said the state government has decided to set up a 50MW gas-based thermal power plant at Titabar in Upper Assam’s Jorhat district.

The proposed project will be a joint venture between the Assam Power Generation Corporation Limited (APGCL) and the Assam Gas Company Limited (AGCL).

He said though the detailed project report was yet to be prepared, the proposed power plant would be set up at an estimated cost of around Rs 300 crore.

“It will take about two-and-a-half years to complete the project,” the minister said.

He said the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) had agreed to provide natural gas for the project from its small pockets of gas reserves in Golaghat and Jorhat districts, though a formal agreement between the state government and ONGC was yet to be signed.

“We will buy the gas from the ONGC. The AGCL will lay a network of around 70km pipeline to transport the gas to Titabar where the AGCL will set up the power plant,” Bordoloi said.

He said getting environment and forest clearance for the project would not be a problem, as the APGCL would be using a latest technology for power generation.

They expect to collect around two lakh standard cubic metres of gas from which 50MW of power will be generated, he added.

“If the availability of gas increases then we will consider enhancing the generation capacity accordingly,” he said.

Bordoloi said the state government wanted to use the associated natural gas, which was found while extraction of crude oil, for power generation since the state was facing shortage of power.

The present peak-hour (6pm to 11pm) demand for the state is 1,400MW against which the state was facing shortfall of about 400MW.

He said currently the associated gas was mostly flared, which the state government wanted to put to productive use.

The natural gas produced in the state can be utilised in the power generation, tea gardens and fertilizer sector. The natural gas-based Assam Gas Cracker Project is being set up at Lepetkata in Dibrugarh to use the associated natural gas.

Though the state government will have to buy gas from the ONGC for its Titabar project, various organisations, including the AASU, had been demanding that instead of consigning the natural gas to flames, it should be supplied free of cost so that the same could be utilised to set up various industries.

“The ONGC also has small pockets of gas in Barak Valley, which we also intend to use for power generation,” Bordoloi said.

He said the APGCL was also planning to set up a solar power plan at Amguri in Sivasagar district.