Strategic Leh-Kaithal Green Energy Corridor gets President's assent

The project is a major step toward India's target of achieving 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuels by 2030

The President of India has cleared the construction of India’s ambitious Green Energy Corridor (GEC) for evacuation of 13GW renewable energy from Ladakh.

The President has approved a Central Financial Assistance of Rs 8,309.48 crore for the strategic project which will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 20,773.70 crore. The approval came on February 15 as per the letter sent by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

The transmission line for evacuating green power from the under-construction renewable energy park in Ladakh will start from Pang (Ladakh) and will pass through Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, after which it will end in Kaithal in Haryana, where it will be integrated with the national grid.

It was on October 18, 2023, when the project received its final approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) is the implementing agency of the project, which will entail setting up 713 km of transmission lines - including 480 km of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) lines and five GW capacity of HVDC terminals each at Pang (Ladakh) and Kaithal (Haryana).

Updating about the project, Ravindra Kumar Tyagi, CMD, PGCIL said the company is hopeful to complete the project by FY30. "The Leh-Ladakh GEC is a very strategic project because it has numerous challenges. It is for the first time that such a project is being executed at a height of 4,500 metres or
almost 5,000 metres," he said.

"Currently, we are going for front-end engineering and design studies. We have already placed the order for the same and the studies shall be completed by March. Based on this, we have to finalise the detailed parameters of every equipment. So based on that, we are going to place orders for the first phase maximum by December since we will get the outcome of the studies by that time, we will have all the documents ready for tendering," Tyagi said during an interaction with investors on February 9.

Overall, by March 2025, he said PGCIL is likely to place orders. "And
from the day of placing the order, I am hopeful that by FY30, the project will be a reality," Tyagi said.

The project is a major step toward India's target of achieving 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuels by 2030, besides contributing towards ensuring energy security for the country. It will also generate direct and indirect employment opportunities for both skilled and unskilled personnel in power and other related sectors, especially in the Ladakh region.