The Chamundeswari Electricity Supply Company (Chescom), which supplies electricity to Mysore and some surrounding districts, is celebrating the 100th year of Mysore city getting power from the Sivasamudram hydroelectric power project on the Cauvery.
Chescom is organising a 25-minute laser shows in different parts of the city to throw light on the epoch-making achievement of power generation in the then Mysore district.
It was hundred years ago on September 26, 1908, that Mysore city got power supply the first time.
Twenty-one lights erected in front of the old palace of the Krishnaraja Wadiyar III were switched on by the maharaja himself, hailing the arrival of electricity from the Cauvery falls at Sivasamudram.
Seshadri Iyer was a dewan (chief minister) of the the princely state ruled by Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV. Though not an engineer, he was inspired by a report he read in an American newspaper on the ways of generating power from hydroelectric projects and the use of the power generated. This led him to think of making use of the great volume of water which during the rainy season poured over the hillside in an unbroken sheet a quarter of a mile wide at Sivasamudram. A J DeLotebiniere, who was deputy chief engineer of Mysore state, gave shape to the ideas of the famous dewan.
His visionary zeal resulted in the setting up of the first major hydroelectric project of a capacity of 4.5 Mw of power. It was the first hydroelectric generating station in South-East Asia and the first one in India too.
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The Maharaja himself commissioned the project in 1899 and three years later in 1902, the Sivasamudram Hydroelectric Station commenced the supply of power to the Kolar Gold Mines, 90 miles away from the Cauvery falls.
Only two decades had passed since the invention of the incandescent bulb by Thomas Alva Edison in 1879. KGF was the first town in South-East Asia to get electricity.
The available surplus power was drawn for Bangalore followed by Mysore. Bangalore became the first city in the country to get hydroelectric power.
The streetlights of Mysore, lit with the Sivasamudram power, were switched on by the maharaja from the Jaganmohan Palace, his temporary residence then. Today, the illumination of the palace by nearly 100,000 of incandescent bulbs is a major attraction for locals as well as tourists from across the world.
The laser show, organised on all the first nine days of the Dasara, was first conducted at the Banni Mantap grounds on September 30. With feature beams and graphic shows, background music keeping pace with the rhythm, the show unfolds the history of electricity supply to Mysore It shows the map of Karnataka, graphic designs of bulbs and clocks, the first power supply to Mysore Palace, power supply to Bangalore and other details.
It also features the rulers of Mysore, Seshadri Iyer, regarded as one of the greatest dewans of Mysore, contributions of M Visvesvaraya and Mirza Ismail to the power development in the state.