The Ministry of Power has amended the supplementary guidelines for payment of compensation towards right of way (RoW) for transmission lines with the objective of expediting land valuation and reducing implementation delays in transmission projects. According to the revised provisions, the market rate committee (MRC) has been mandated to appoint three valuers on the same day by the landowners’ representative, one by the transmission service provider and one by the district magistrate.
The amendments specify that valuation reports must be submitted in sealed envelopes directly to the district magistrate within 21 days of nomination. Once all three reports are received, two reports will be selected through a lottery system for the determination of the reference market rate. Under the revised methodology, if the difference between the two selected valuations is less than 20 per cent, the average of the two values will be taken as the reference market rate. If the difference exceeds 20 per cent, the reference rate may be fixed at 10 per cent above the lower valuation, failing which the third valuation will be considered and the average of the two lowest values will be adopted.