RPGCOM :: June 2009

The Lead
CESC House: Of power and glory

Sunil Bhandari of RPG Enterprises, Kolkata takes a walk down memory lane, and narrates the fascinating story of the headquarters of the group’s showpiece power company.

We could well call CESC House the “Queen of Dharamtalla”, towering as it does, regal and beautiful, over the dust and bustle of the busiest part of the city.

In a city which has legacies of the past in every nook and corner, CESC House is still special. Partly because of its amazing location, largely because of its majesty. It dwarfs what is around not just because of its size (oh, there are taller buildings around it), but because of its character. Solid, trustworthy, something worth looking up to.

And that’s the only way to look at the structure, and the company which owns it.

As R P Goenka, Chairman Emeritus, says “Some great buildings often house not so great companies, but at the heartland of Esplanade, this landmark building accommodates one of India’s liveliest and fastest growing power companies”.

The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Ltd. (as CESC was known earlier) opened its office first at 8, Dalhousie Square on New Year’s Day in 1908.

The office moved to Temple Chambers, 6, Old Post Office Street thereafter. And then finally the company moved to its present address, Victoria House, as it was then known, in 1933.

The name Victoria House was taken from the company’s Holborn Headquarters, in London. The architect of this building was Ballery Thompson Mathews and it was constructed by the then venerable Martin Burn & Company Ltd.. Incidentally, the same architect and construction company were also responsible for building the other landmark of Dharamtalla – The Statesman House.

Both the buildings are iconic, and now, heritage buildings.

The story goes that before power came to Calcutta, gas lamps used to glow in the night in many areas of Calcutta.

The Government of Bengal passed the Calcutta Electric Lighting Act in 1895, and on January 7, 1897, Kilburn & Co secured the Calcutta Electric Lighting License as agents of the Indian Electric Co, which was registered in London. A month later, the company was renamed as The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation. The control of the company was transferred from London to Calcutta only in 1970.

By 1901 there were only 708 domestic subscribers, perhaps because of the steep tariff — 8 annas per unit. So the company employed canvassers to attract customers. And in 1937, the tariff was shaved to 2 & ½ annas! And customers grew rapidly.

The British company, however, avoided supplying power to slums as it was not profitable. Enthused by the success of electricity in Calcutta, power was thereafter introduced in Bombay!!

CESC, as a building, today is an amazing amalgam of the modern and the traditional. The wide staircases are an architect’s delight, though an owner’s terror! The labyrinthine corridors house modern offices, albeit with ceilings 15 feet high.

The unique part of this structure is that, it is a steel framed building with brick outside but steel inside. The floors are hollow blocks made of concrete, which is just not made anymore

CESC House today has about 125 rooms, innumerable cubicles, beautiful conference Rooms, committee Rooms, and the Systems Control Room. It consumes almost 5 lacs units of power per month and has almost 1000 people working within it.

There are still people from the old days who remember the Britishers who came with baggy pants, fragrant pipes and severe attitudes. Those were the days when the fragility of the crockery determined the status of the office; and when engineers used to wear khaki half pants and ride motor bikes with their Syces (assistants) sitting behind them.

CESC House has seen dramas and personalities of very many kinds. The crises brought about by the 1978 Floods and the 2009 Aila Storm were managed out of this office and it’s engineering wing at Poddar Court. The story goes about when Mother Teresa personally came in 1981to ask for waiver of an old due of Rs 10,000 on Nirmal Hriday in Park Circus. As rules did not allow such a waiver, a donation of a similar amount was made to the Missionaries of Charity to help them clear the CESC dues.

CESC House is an amalgam of stories and, as often happens, it is a living embodiment of what is unique and legendary. A queen, indeed.