On October 13, a day after the cyclone struck Odisha, citizens of Bhubaneswar were busy clearing the debris left in Phailin’s wake. Something unusual was going on in the state capital that day. Riding pillion on a scooter, Pradip Kumar Jena, the state’s energy secretary, was out, taking a tour of the city to assess the damage.

Finding all power systems down and major roads in the capital blocked by fallen trees, Jena decided to get a ride from a journalist friend and check out all substations on his own instead of waiting for official paraphernalia. This no-nonsense attitude to work is perhaps responsible for restoration of supply to all major towns in the state within a week despite the heavy damage suffered by the power sector.

The subsequent rains and flooding took a further toll, and downed part of the infrastructure again, but that is another story.

As floods came within days of the cyclone, the state’s power system was the worst hit, especially in the coastal districts, with many high-tension and low-tension towers, poles and power lines either snapped or bent beyond repair. It was a herculean task to restore supply, particularly to vital installations in the worst-affected south Odisha. But starting with the decision to ride pillion and take immediate stock of the damage, Jena was ready for the challenge.
The diminutive commissioner and secretary of energy was everywhere: convening emergency meetings in the state secretariat, setting up a task force, accompanying chief minister Naveen Patnaik on aerial surveys and monitoring progress of restoration on the field.

The 1989-batch IAS officer attributes this preparedness to the experience of the super-cyclone in 1999 – that natural calamity, he stresses, taught him valuable lessons on how to tackle situations such as these. Then the district collector of Cuttack, Jena had seen and handled first hand the ravages of the super cyclone in the coastal districts of Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara.

“Being there before gave me the courage and composure to deal with Phailin,” he says.

Picking the team, getting to work

Jena’s first task was to get his team together and soon as he was informed about the approach of Phailin he convened a meeting of the heads of the Grid Corporation of Odisha (Gridco), Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Limited (OPTCL) and Odisha Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) to chalk out a strategy. He put two of his best officers – Hemant Sharma, chairman and managing director of Gridco and OPTCL, and Santosh Sahoo, director (finance) of OHPC – in charge of damage assessment and restoration.

When Jena landed in Ganjam, the devastation was much worse than expected and the hapless Southern Electricity Supply Company of Odisha (Southco) distribution staff was sitting around like lame ducks with no idea about what to do. Jena realised at once that Southco could not do the massive work on its own and called up Lanco, Tata Steel, L&T and Rourkela Steel Plant authorities to mobilise their ‘gang contractors’ along with skilled and semi-skilled labourers, for restoration.

But men alone would not suffice, he realised quickly – materials and machines were also required.

Jena requested Rourkela Steel Plant to move whatever stock of pole it had to Ganjam. He authorised movement of all materials available to the affected districts of Ganjam, Puri and Khurda and also sent a request to the power ministry for central funds to address the requirement for materials.

His main objective, Jena says, was to restore all grid stations. So he directed the executive engineer concerned to restore the Chhatrapur 133 KV grid station within 24 hours. However, the incessant rains that flooded the region, already reeling from the cyclone, hampered restoration. The hard work put in so far virtually went down the drain as lines and feeders, temporarily restored, collapsed again.

Flood, Jena says, added to the woes of the five affected districts – Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Khurda and Ganjam. Three 33-KV substations and 1,182 transformers in the NESCO area (areas fed by North Eastern electricity Supply Company of Odisha) were under eight feet of water, he says.
Jena’s team found two 33 KV transformers and three 11 KV towers completely washed away. Moreover, 12 transformers had to be replaced within 24 hours. Phuladi and Odangi were the villages worst affected by the subsequent floods.

Putting together the money

To address the situation, Jena diverted for restoration '300 crore from five schemes of the state government’s capital expenditure (capex) programme.
Capex was launched to strengthen the distribution network, the weakest link in the power sector ever since Odisha carried out power reforms in the mid-1990s. The state government worked out a package to mop up the necessary funds through debt, abandoning its earlier option of equity.

While the state was to organise '1,200 crore, including a grant of '500 crore from the 13th finance commission, distribution companies (‘discoms’) were to raise the rest. The state government has provided '205 crore in this year’s budget towards its share to discoms for the capex programme.

To get the system back on track after the cyclone and floods, Jena says he directed the discoms to start single-phase line work, which was meant for rural electrification programme under DESI, RGBY and Biju Gram Jyoti Yojana. Seeing the magnitude of the damage, he sanctioned another '200 crore so that work should be completed on “war footing”.

Jena says his first objective was to repair and start the Narendrapur grid station, and subsequently to restore power to important installations like hospitals and water supply units in Ganjam district, which bore the biggest brunt of the twin calamities.

Jena says he took the risk of providing power supply first to MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur himself. “When I asked my staff to lay a cable along the ground and provide power supply to the hospital they were reluctant, apprehensive of accidents,” he says. “They said laying a one-and-half km cable was next to impossible. But I asked them to go ahead and then had Southco authorities inform people through public address system not to come near the cable.”

The cable was laid and power provided to the medical college at night and disconnected in the morning.

Jena says 90 percent of power supply in the state was restored within three weeks of Phailin. But there is no room for complacency, he adds, as the electricity poles put up after the cyclone were flattened by the floods. “All poles would have to be erected again and the wires reconnected,” Jena says.
This is no Twenty20 game; it’s well and truly a Test match for the state’s officialdom to get the machinery up and running again. But going by Jena’s inning thus far, Odisha, it seems, is in safe hands.