Large amplitude oscillation of the power transmission lines, which is also known as galloping phenomenon, has hazardous consequences such as short circuiting and failure of transmission line. In this article, to suppress the undesirable vibrations of the transmission lines, first the governing equations of transmission line are derived via mode summation technique. Then, due to the occurrence of large amplitude vibrations, non-linear quadratic and cubic terms are included in the derived linear equations. To suppress the vibrations, arbitrary number of the piezoelectric actuators is assumed to exert the actuation forces. Afterwards, a Lyapunov based approach is proposed for the robust adaptive suppression of the undesirable vibrations in the finite time. To compensate the supposed parametric uncertainties with unknown bands, proper adaption laws are introduced. To avoid the vibration devastating consequences as quickly as possible, appropriate control laws are designed. The vibration suppression in the finite time with supposed adaption and control laws is mathematically proved via Lyapunov finite time stability theory. Finally, to illustrate and validate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed finite time control scheme, a parametric case study with three piezoelectric actuators is performed. It is observed that the proposed active control strategy is more efficient and robust than the passive control methods. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.