The Union power ministry has said via gazette notification that “Central Transmission Utility of India Ltd” (CTUIL) will start operations on April 1, 2021.
In the gazette notification dated March 9, 2021, the power ministry said that CTUIL, a government company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), will “undertake and discharge all functions of Central Transmission Utility pursuant to provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003 or any regulations or directions of the Central Commission or Authority or any other directions or functions prescribed by the Central Government in that regard.”
PGCIL shall continue to be a deemed Transmission Licensee under the Electricity Act and discharge functions incidental and connected therewith and would also undertake functions as directed by the Central Government or Authority in that regard. This Gazette Notification shall be effective from April 1, 2021.
It may be recalled that in June 2020, the power ministry decided to hive off the CTU operations, which were undertaken by PGCIL, into a separate entity.
The story in brief
- PGCIL used to undertake activities of the CTU
- One part of the operations of the CTU involves planning of transmission lines.
- This gave an unfair advantage to PGCIL whilst bidding for transmission lines under the TBCB regime. (PGCIL could allegedly be privy to vital information of a project before it came up for bidding.)
- In June 2020, the power ministry decided to CTU operations be hived off into a separate entity.
- This entity would be a wholly-owned subsidiary of PGCIL. This could later be converted into a separate entity directly under the power ministry, severing all connections with PGCIL.
