India has approved the development of a 1,150-kilovolt (kV) ultra-high-voltage power transmission corridor designed to carry clean electricity from major renewable energy generation centres in the west to rapidly growing industrial and urban demand centres in the eastern part of the country, Reuters reported.

The project, cleared by India's national transmission panel, is expected to cost approximately ₹68,800 crore and will take around six years to complete. It represents one of the most significant upgrades to the country's electricity transmission infrastructure as renewable energy capacity continues to expand at an unprecedented pace.

Once completed, the 1,150-kV system will become India's highest-voltage power transmission network, surpassing the existing 765-kV transmission lines currently forming the backbone of the national grid.

The new corridor is intended to address the challenge of transporting increasing volumes of renewable electricity across large distances. As solar and wind power projects continue to grow in western states, particularly Rajasthan, power demand is rising steadily in eastern industrial regions, including Odisha and neighbouring states.

Compared with existing 765-kV infrastructure, the new 1,150-kV network will be capable of transmitting substantially larger quantities of electricity through fewer transmission lines. This will reduce the need for additional transmission corridors and land acquisition while also lowering transmission losses across long distances.

The first phase of the project will establish connections between Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal. It will also integrate with a 6,000-megawatt high-voltage transmission system that carries renewable electricity from Rajasthan's Bhadla solar region, one of the world's largest solar power complexes.

The initiative comes as India accelerates investment in renewable energy and battery storage systems to support its target of achieving 500 gigawatts of non-fossil fuel power generation capacity by 2030. The country already has more than 300 GW of non-fossil power generation capacity and continues to add new renewable energy projects at a record rate.

The planned transmission corridor is expected to strengthen grid reliability, improve the movement of renewable power across regions and support the country's long-term energy transition objectives.

By enabling larger volumes of clean electricity to be transmitted more efficiently over long distances, the project is set to play a crucial role in linking renewable energy-rich states with some of India's fastest-growing centres of industrial and urban electricity consumption.

Agencies