Official statistics suggest very poor performance with respect to transmission line addition during May 2025.
As against the planned 1,282 ckm for the month, actual addition of transmission lines (of 220kV or higher) was just 262 ckm.
The entire addition came from state government utilities with Central government entities (mainly Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd) and the private sector drawing a blank.
The May 2025 achievement of 262 ckm was mainly in the 220kV (including 230kV) class where 241 ckm was added. The remaining 21 ckm pertained to the 400kV voltage class.
In the first two months (April and May) of FY26, cumulative transmission line addition stood at 620 ckm, as against the planned 1,983 ckm. Even here, state government utilities constituted bulk of the achievement, at 609 ckm. The remainder of 11 ckm was commissioned by private sector entity Adani Energy Solutions Ltd through a LILO associated with its Sangod intrastate-TBCB project in Rajasthan. The entire addition during the April-May period of FY26 was on the intrastate transmission system (InSTS) side.
Across all ownership groups and voltage classes, the planned transmission line addition in Q1 (April to June) of FY26 is 6,005 ckm. Given that just 620 ckm has been commissioned in the first two months, achieving the Q1FY26 target appears arduous.
Target for FY26
For the current year FY26 (April 2025 to March 2026), the planned addition of transmission lines stands at 24,400 ckm. This would be over two and a half times of the 8,830 ckm actually added in FY25. Incidentally, the planned addition in FY25 was 15,253 ckm. In FY25, PGCIL had commissioned 2,534 ckm of lines, which was less than half of the planned addition of 5,281 ckm.
Of the total planned addition in FY26, PGCIL is expected to account for 10,263 ckm, or 42 per cent. State government utilities are likely to add 7,647 ckm while the private sector is likely to build 6,404 ckm of new lines.
Within the private sector, Resonia (formerly Sterlite Power) is expected to make a sizeable contribution of 2,171 ckm to overall transmission line addition in FY26. This, in turn, would follow targeted commissioning of transmission line elements associated with Resonia’s ISTS-TBCB projects including: Udupi Kasargode Transmission Ltd, Fatehgarh III Beawar Transmission Ltd, Beawar Transmission Ltd and Neemrana II Kotputli Transmission Ltd.
Cumulative status
As of May 31, 2025, India’s total transmission line network stood at 4,94,994 ckm with 214384 ckm (or 43 per cent) on the interstate transmission system (ISTS) and the remaining 57 per cent on the intrastate grid. The country’s interregional transfer capacity, as of given date, was 1,18,740 MW, unchanged from its level as of March 31, 2024.
(This story takes in account transmission lines of 220kV or above, only. Featured photograph is for representation.)