The National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO) had been one of the 3 funding partners and beneficiaries of the Laxmipur 16 bay 220/33 KV substation that had previously been built by EMPOWERTRANS for Aditya Aluminium Ltd, to be ultimately handed over to the Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (OPTCL). NALCO had envisaged linking their Refinery complex at Damanjodi with the Laxmipur Switching Station. It was, therefore, natural that in due course, towards the end of 2013, the construction of this 220 KV Transmission Line was awarded to EMPOWERTRANS. It was not just for EMPOWERTRANS’s previous association with NALCO during the construction of the Laxmipur Switching Station, but perhaps due to the extremely difficult terrain, both physically, as well as from a socio-political point of view, that NALCO reposed its confidence on EMPOWERTRANS.

Besides the hilly terrain and the presence of entrenched socio-political groups along the route, one of the major considerations also was the extensive presence of forest lands. In fact, so deep was the forest presence, that it was decided by NALCO to commence construction of the project only after obtaining the forest clearance from the appropriate authorities. The complexity of execution was considerably increased as this responsibility was also delegated to EMPOWERTRANS, besides automatically prolonging the execution period due to the uncertainty of time period within which the forest approval could be obtained. Matters became more complicated due to the fact that large scale changes took place in the Forest approval norms, making it necessary to go for repeated re-approvals. On the construction front, additional efforts became necessary due to change in specifications and configurations as advised by OPTCL mid-way during project execution.

Notwithstanding all these challenges the project was completed in time for linking with the Refinery complex of NALCO, and connectivity was obtained with the Laxmipur Switching Station of OPTCL after waiting for the clearance to NALCO from OPTCL. With this, another glorious chapter was added to the ever growing credentials of EMPOWERTRANS in the realm of execution of challenging and problematic Transmission Line projects.