The fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2025 witnessed the lowest addition of transmission lines in recent history.
According to latest statistics released by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), FY25 saw the addition of only 8,830 ckm of new transmission lines. Not only did this miss the planned addition of 15,253 ckm by a wide margin, it was also the lowest addition seen in any fiscal year since FY15.
Prior to this, the lowest transmission line addition in recent history was seen in FY20 – partly affected by the COVID pandemic – when 11,664 ckm was transmission line addition was seen. Even in FY21 and FY22, which were impacted by the pandemic, the average annual addition was in the region of 15,000 ckm.
Industry experts suggest that RoW constraints have been severely hampering the progress of transmission lines, with inadequate compensation to landowners being the principal reason. To this effect, the Union power ministry, in June 2024, significantly revised land compensation rates – a move that might alleviate RoW-related issues going forward.
It is also worth observing that of the total 8,830 ckm added during the whole of FY25, as much as 22 per cent (or 1,950 ckm) came in March 2025, the last month of FY25.
In terms of voltage class, shortfall was seen in all categories – 220kV, 400kV and 765kV. The biggest deficit was seen in the 765kV category where actual addition, at 2,158 ckm, was less than half of the planned addition of 4,703 ckm.
With respect to ownership groups, the private sector did relatively better with the 1,483 ckm of lines added coming close to the planned 1,586 ckm. The Central government sector – dominated by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd – suffered a big deficit. As against 5,413 ckm planned to be added in FY25, actual addition was just 2,586 ckm, implying a shortfall of over 50 per cent. Statistics further suggest that PGCIL closed FY25 with 2,534 ckm of new transmission lines, falling considerably short of the planned 5,281 ckm.
PGCIL’s under-performance had an adverse bearing on the transmission line addition on the interstate transmission system (ISTS) grid. During FY25, transmission line addition on the ISTS network was at just 3,253 ckm – the lowest since FY15.
Line addition on the intrastate grid was 5,577 ckm in FY25, which was also the lowest since FY15 with the exception of FY20 when it had ebbed to 4,908 ckm.
As of March 31, 2025, India’s total transmission line network (of 220kV or above), stood at 4,94,374 ckm, up barely 1.8 per cent from 4,85,544 ckm as of March 31, 2024. The country’s total interregional transfer capacity, at 1,18,740 MW, remaining unchanged by the same comparison.
Note: This story takes into account transmission lines of 220kV or above only. Featured photograph is for representation only
