The Committee of Directors on Investment on Projects of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) has approved investment of nearly Rs.210 crore in an interstate scheme taking shape in northeast India.
In a brief stock exchange filing, PGCIL said that the aforementioned committee, in its meeting held on August 26, 2025, considered and approved the proposal for implementation of “North-Eastern Region Expansion Scheme – XXIII (NERES-XXIII),” at an estimated cost of Rs.209.38 crore.
The scheme is scheduled to be commissioned by February 3, 2028, which is within 30 months of the date of allocation of the project, the filing said, without giving any further details.
According to information available with T&D India from official sources, the NERES-XXIII project was allocated to PGCIL by Central Transmission Utility of India (CTUIL) on August 4, 2025, under the regulated tariff mechanism (RTM) framework. The scheme was cleared by National Committee on Transmission (NCT) in July 2025.
Project objective
The broad objective of NERES-XXIII is to meet additional industrial demand of about 100 MW in Arunachal Pradesh. The scheme will also cater to power requirements during the construction phase of several hydropower projects coming up in the northeastern state. The scheme seeks to improve the reliability the power transmission grid in Arunachal Pradesh, which is predominantly 132kV, single circuit.
Project elements
NERES-XXIII essentially involves stringing of the second circuit on three existing 132kV lines, using ACSR Panther conductor:
- Pasighat – Roing (103 km)
- Roing – Tezu (73 km)
- Tezu – Namsai (95 km)
The three lines aggregate around 270 km of running length. Of the four substations involved, Pasighat is owned by Department of Power, Arunachal Pradesh, while the remaining three belong to PGCIL. The project also entails a total of six new 132kV AIS line bays, collectively at the four substations.
Cost escalation
According to officially released information, the NERES-XXIII scheme was originally approved and allotted to PGCIL in June 2024, with an estimated project outlay of Rs.73.47 crore. Subsequently, PGCIL, citing higher RoW compensation in Arunachal Pradesh, requested CTUIL to review the approved project cost. In the final clearance, NCT revised the project cost to Rs.117.65 crore. However, the present DPR cost, as worked by PGCIL, stands at Rs.209.38 crore, reflecting the current RoW compensation rates in Arunachal Pradesh.
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