Transmission sector looking up

The Modi government has been successful in bridging the power shortage in the country from 4 per cent levels seen in May 2014 to 2.3 per cent at present. Reform measures in coal, power and renewable energies have helped reduce that gap. Now the government has set an ambitious target to deliver electricity to all census villages by 2018. This will require major investments in the transmission sector. The main bottleneck that comes in the way of the government's goal is the insufficient transmission capacity the country faces. Power Grid Corporation was the primary transmission-capacity builder in the country before the sector was opened up to private players in 2011 for inter-state and in 2013 for intra-state transmission. What kind of investments are we looking at? Over the Thirteenth Plan period, an investment of ₹2.6 trillion may be required (Motilal Oswal estimates), which would be divided into i