There were delays in issuing the environmental permits and then legal challenges since the line crosses the territory of indigenous people who had not been consulted.

[3] The Linhão de Tucuruí, or the Tucuruí-Macapá-Manaus Interconnection, was built to link the northern communities to the grid to meet growth in power demand, particularly in the Manaus region.

[5] The project would provide cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable electricity and would eliminate the expensive subsidy for thermal generation.

[2] The project involved construction of seven double-circuit power lines with a total length of about 1,800 kilometres (1,100 mi) connecting eight substations.

[6] The project built a double circuit with a voltage of 500 kV between the Tucuruí hydroelectric plant, the second largest in the country, and the Manaus region.

[3] The concession to build and operate the line from Manaus north to Boa Vista, Roraima, was auctioned in September 2011 and the agreement with the Transnorte consortium was signed in January 2012.

[21] The route chosen by Transnorte Energia, the concessionary company, would follow the BR-174 federal highway and was identified as alternative 1 in the 2014 Environmental Impact Assessment, which included studies of the indigenous component.

[21] The Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI – National Indian Foundation) issued a letter of consent in November 2015.

[22] The preliminary licence was granted to Transnorte Energia by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) on 9 December 2015.

[21] In January 2016 the Roraima Secretary for Planning said the connection to the Linhão de Tucuruí should reach Boa Vista in 2018.

[22] In February 2016 a federal judge issued an injunction that prohibited work on the 500 kV line until the Waimiri-Atroari indigenous people had been consulted.

The Waimiri Atroari had already suffered from a history of "violent pacification", illegal mining and flooding of sacred territories, as with the Balbina Dam.

[23][b] In March 2016 a federal judge responded to a request by the attorney general and suspended the injunction that was preventing construction of the line.

He said there had been undue judicial interference in the licensing process for the project, which was of a national strategic nature and would be undertaken entirely on federal land along the BR-174.

It covered topics such as the impact on protected areas, land degradation, water pollution, damage to flora and fauna, archaeological and historical sites and community involvement.

For example, the effect of reduced plant mass in the transmission corridor had to be offset against the savings in greenhouse gas emitted when generating power.

A public prosecutor asserted that trees had been removed in the Mindu Park in Manaus, violating the environment license.

[28] On 7 April 2015 a sum of R$450,000 was allocated to the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve to offset the irreversible negative environmental impacts from implementation and operation of the Linhão de Tucuruí.

[29] The section to Boa Vista would run through the Adolfo Ducke Forest Reserve, an important research site.