Margao: Goa Tamnar Transmission Project Ltd (GTTPL) has issued a public notice invoking Section 164 of the Electricity Act, 2003, seeking Central government authorisation — with powers akin to those a telegraph authority holds under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 — to survey, construct, erect and maintain electric lines and electrical plant. The request relates to the remaining leg of its long-pending 400kV transmission project intended to provide Goa an additional electricity feed.The notice pertains to the scheme titled ‘Additional 400 kV Feed to Goa and Additional System for Power Evacuation from Generation Projects pooled at Raigarh (Tamnar) Pool’. It covers two components: the LILO (line-in-line-out) of one circuit of the existing Narendra–Narendra (New) 400kV D/c quad line at Xeldem, and the already-commissioned Dharamjaygarh Pool–Raigarh (Tamnar) Pool 765kV D/c line in Chhattisgarh.GTTPL said Centre granted Section 164 approval through a Gazette notification dated Nov 28, 2018, and that the project is largely implemented except for the LILO of the Narendra line at Xeldem. This pending segment is planned to pass through Dharbandora taluka in South Goa, as well as villages in the Uttar Kannada, Belagavi, and Dharwad districts of Karnataka. The company said the route realignment for this stretch follows directions issued by the Supreme Court on April 7, 2022.The company has invited objections and representations on the proposed route alignment within two months of the notice’s publication. Please address them to its Gurugram office.The Goa–Tamnar project, conceived by the Union power ministry in 2015 to reduce Goa’s dependence on the Western grid, has been among the state’s most contested infrastructure proposals over the past six years. It was cleared by the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife in April 2020 — along with the four-laning of NH-4A and doubling of the South Western Railway line through the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem National Park — triggering the sustained ‘Save Mollem’ citizens’ movement.Goa govt has consistently defended the project as essential to the state’s power security.
