Mutual coupling poses difficult problems witnessed during single phase to earth fault, in transmission line protection. In parallel lines on the same right of way, mutually coupled zero-sequence circuits cause error in the apparent impedance seen by the relay. This causes the distance relay at one end of the faulty line to over-reach while the one at the other end to under-reach. Incorrect sensing of the ground fault due to zero-sequence voltage inversion caused by mutually coupled zero-sequence network may lead to false trip of the neighbouring healthy line. The paper develops characteristic expressions for effective sequence impedances of twin circuit lines and presents a non-iterative microprocessor based algorithm for fault distance and under-reach estimation in real time, for under-reach correction in basic distance relaying scheme. The residual current measurement from the parallel circuit is not required for this purpose. © 2008 IEEE.