Right of Way (ROW) Challenge in Construction of Transmission Lines & its Mitigation in India

At COP26 summit in Glasgow in Nov’2021, India has pledged 500 GW of non-fossil fuel based installed capacity by the year 2030 and agreed to meet 50% of its energy requirement by renewable sources. To meet this ambitious target, many Solar parks, Hybrid wind-solar power projects, Offshore wind plants are under development. Also, various new technologies are being introduced in grid like Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) & Green Hydrogen Energy to reduce the carbon footprint. Globally, the work is going on for developing the One Sun, One World, One Grid (OSOWOG). For the evacuation of this huge quantum of renewable power, matching transmission infrastructure shall be required. Moreover, gestation period of renewable power projects being less, building transmission infrastructure in shorter time is a big challenge being faced by planners. India is developing green energy corridors for evacuation of the renewable energy from generation point to the load centres by creating intra-state and inter-state transmission infrastructure through Regulatory Tariff Mechanism (RTM) as well as Tariff Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB) routes. Land acquisition and getting right of way (ROW) are becoming the biggest hurdles in constructing the transmission infrastructure in time due to rapid urbanisation and litigations issues. This paper aims to give information about the ROW and how it is a significant challenge for transmission utilities/companies in Construction and O & M phase and the mitigation measures.