Andhra Pradesh Green Energy Corridor: Rs 21,838 Crore Cleared for Transmission

Andhra Pradesh now has its own number under Green Energy Corridor Phase 3. The Centre has cleared Rs 21,838 crore to expand the state’s transmission network, and a third of it comes as a central grant. For machine owners in the state, it is the first state-level figure the scheme has produced. It points to several years of tower-foundation and substation work that APTransco will have to put out to contractors. The catch is that nobody has yet said how much of it is line and how much is substation.

Who approved it, and what is still missing?

Deccan Chronicle and Oneindia Telugu both reported the clearance on 19 October with identical figures, and Eenadu, ETV Bharat and News18 Telugu carried the same headline number. Neither readable report names the approving body or the date of the sanction. Both say only “the Centre”. The money ties exactly: Rs 7,207 crore plus Rs 14,631 crore is Rs 21,838 crore. Deccan Chronicle alone reports a five-year completion window, so treat that as one desk’s figure.

We ran one more check against the national numbers. Andhra’s Rs 21,838 crore is 16 per cent of the scheme’s Rs 1,36,378 crore transmission pool. Its Rs 7,207 crore grant is also 16 per cent of the Rs 45,005 crore central transmission support. You’d expect that match if the state simply got the scheme’s standard grant ratio on its own capex.

What does Rs 21,838 crore mean for machine owners?

Start with the money shape. If the five-year window holds, that is roughly Rs 4,370 crore a year. Most of a transmission budget buys towers, conductor, transformers and switchgear, so the civil slice that pays for machine hours is a minority of the headline.

Next, split the job, because lines and substations need different fleets. A line is hundreds of separate tower sites, each on four foundation pits. That is backhoe loader and mini excavator work, with small transit mixers and tippers feeding concrete, and piling where a line crosses a river. Crews move every few days, which makes it a hire pattern for most owners. A substation is a graded platform that holds a crew for months. Excavators, motor graders and compactors work the cut and fill, and a heavy crane comes in on hire to set transformers. Which half dominates? Nobody can say until APTransco publishes circuit-km and MVA, and that one disclosure decides whether this is a hire market for compact machines or months of steady platform work for bigger earthmovers.

Then the route. Nationally, greenfield work goes through tariff-based bidding and brownfield work runs cost-plus. A TBCB winner is a lead indicator, since the machines get hired in the EPC packages it lets later. The state’s split is not public.

For scale, Odisha’s Rs 15,948 crore 765 kV approval in September came with a voltage class. Andhra’s is bigger in rupees but still blank on specification. More on how grid work loads a fleet is on our power and renewable energy page.

Our take: this is a forward signal, not a contract. Real demand reaches owners when APTransco floats its first GEC-III packages, and that is the point to price machines, not today.

FAQ

How much has the Centre cleared for Andhra Pradesh under Green Energy Corridor Phase 3?

Rs 21,838 crore, according to reports on 19 October 2026. About Rs 7,207 crore is a central grant and APTransco is to raise the remaining Rs 14,631 crore as loans.

Which machines will the Andhra transmission work need?

Line work needs backhoe loaders, mini excavators, small mixers and tippers for tower pits, plus piling at river crossings. Substations need excavators, motor graders and compactors for the platform and a hired heavy crane for transformers. The split between the two has not been published.

When will contracts be awarded?

No tender calendar has been published. Watch for APTransco’s first package notices under the scheme.

Related on DesiMachines: Green Energy Corridor Phase 3: 51,126 ckm of grid work cleared

Source: Deccan Chronicle