This blog is part of a series. The first blog can be found here.

The Shivasamudram project became a truly international one in terms of supplies. While the electric plant came from the United States, the hydraulic plant came from Switzerland, the penstock pipes from Scotland, the insulators from Italy and the timber for the transmission lines was the Australian red wood, Jarrah. The erection of the plant was completed by March 1902, just one year and seven months after commencement, a record that would be hard to meet even today. The project was formally opened by Lord Curzon, Viceroy and Governor General of India, and the first motor at KGF commenced running on electricity by March 1902.

After a year’s trouble free operation it was clear that the mining load would soon outgrow station capacity and that the generating plant had to be supplemented by additional units. Experience also showed that water availability could support more generation units and so the power plant was extended over several stages. The second installation was undertaken in 1903-04. Additional installations were made from 1907-08 (the third) 1913-14 (the fourth) 1915-18 (the fifth), 1919-22 (the sixth) and the seventh installation was in 1925-28. With the completion of the seventh installation the question of extending the power supply to serve other important industries in the state was also considered. Of them, the most important industrial load was the Bhadravati Iron Works, where electrical power would supplant charcoal used in steel production and help in preserving forests. The power line to Bhadravati was to be run from Mysore along Hassan and Arsikere, with provision to supply power to Hassan, Tiptur, Arsikere and Kadamane estate.

In the two decades following the commissioning of the first unit, the growth of power demand was nearly always in excess of the capacity and ability to supply. The distinguished planners and administrators who led the state were constantly aware that the maximum capacity of the generating station would be reached sooner than later. Something had to be done quickly to ensure that industrial development would not be constrained by inadequate electricity supply.

It was in these times that Sir Mirza Ismail became Dewan of Mysore in May 1925. His interest in the development of electrical power was obsessive and he immediately set himself to the task of giving the maximum benefit of electric service to everybody in the state.

The benefits of the Cauvery power projects were much more long lasting than the mere supply of electric power. As McHutchin predicted, Mysore state gained an enviable reputation as a well administered and progressive state, largely on the strength of its electric power, industries and irrigation schemes. This reputation continued a long time after Independence, and it was only from the late 1970s onwards that it was sullied, again primarily by a lack of electric power.

Today, planners and private developers of power are confronted by the same issues as Captain De Lotbiniere and the Mysore Darbar. Will new projects be viable? Is there a demand for the power? What are the technical constraints? What is the transparency in the choice of technology and contractors?

While these concerns have indeed been unchanged, there is unhappily a sea change in the way we have dealt with these issues

Far sighted men as Sir Sheshadri Iyer and Sir Mirza Ismail foresaw not only the economic benefits of generating and supplying power to the KGF, but also that power would drive economic and industrial development, agricultural development and above all, improve the quality of life of the subjects of Mysore.

True they took risks too, but their endeavours bore fruit and gave Mysore decades of prosperity, far ahead of the rest of India. We need to emulate these great deeds. There has to be a community of purpose in our approach, instead of looking at our projects in a compartmentalised manner.

What of Shivasamudram? Its present owner is the Vishveshwaraiah Vidyut Nigam Limited, a government owned generating company. Its power supply is a miniscule quantity of the total power supplied in Karnataka. But it still functions and its generators churn out power as it did a century back, a testimony to the painstaking and high integrity processes of procurement and project implementation.