Powergrid Corporation India to get bulk of transmission projects
As the government begins rolling out contracts worth Rs 1,08,000 crore for power transmission this year, a breakdown of the numbers shows that state-owned Powergrid Corporation India Ltd (PGCIL) will get a lion’s share of the contracts.
As the government begins rolling out contracts worth Rs 1,08,000 crore for power transmission this year, a breakdown of the numbers shows that state-owned Powergrid Corporation India Ltd (PGCIL) will get a lion’s share of the contracts.
Interestingly, the power transmission behemoth already controls about 90% of the power transmission sector in the country. This despite the fact that the transmission sector was thrown open to private sector in 2010.
A few of these contracts, for which PGCIL is also eligible to compete, have already been auctioned out. Earlier this month, Adani Power won three contracts worth more than Rs 3,600 crore in Chhattisgarh. Before this, Sterlite Grid Ltd had won a Rs 400 crore project in Telangana.
Among the major projects to be executed by PGCIL would be a high-voltage link between the western region (Chhattisgarh) and southern region (Tamil Nadu and Kerala) at a cost of Rs 19,820 crore. Apart from this, contracts for an inter-regional link in the southern region (mainly Telangana), and transmission links in Andhra Pradesh would be thrown open to bidding at a combined estimated cost of a little under Rs 15,600 crore. ‘Green energy corridors’ worth Rs 7,463 crore will be executed by PGCIL mostly in Rajasthan and Gujarat. PGCIL would also put up a substation in Delhi at a cost of Rs 3,000 crore, and an inter-state transmission system for green power in the northern states for Rs 4,440 crore.
Figures show that even among the intra-state works, again under the so-called ‘green corridor’, more than half the projects will be executed by Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The Union Cabinet recently cleared projects worth Rs 8,548 crore.
