Bhubaneswar: Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Limited (OPTCL) has established the OPTCL Chair
Professor at IIT Bhubaneswar. This will accelerate the collaborative effort for addressing various
issues pertaining to Odisha Power sector comprising all the three arms including Generation,
Transmission and Distribution. The Chair will be responsible for building a Dynamic IndustryInstitute Interface to keep track of the industry requirement in the power sector in Odisha.
Dr. S. R. Samantaray from School of Electrical Sciences has been selected for the OPTCL chair
position for a period of three years. While sharing his vision, Dr. Samantaray told that he will
drive this collaboration not only addressing various technical issues of OPTCL, but also to
establish a Center of Excellence in “Smartgrid and Sustainable Energy” to support the power
sector with a significant amount of renewable in coming days. Further, a State-of-the-art power
equipment “Testing Laboratory” will be planned in the state of Odisha to cater to the need of the
state as well as other nearby states. On this occasion, Prof V. K. Tewari, Director of IIT
Bhubaneswar emphasized on the need for building a strong industry-academia interface with
long-term collaboration towards sustainable growth in today’s fast-moving technology. OPTCL
Managing Director Mr. Sanjay Kumar Mishra and other Directors expressed solidarity on the
collaboration and said that this will definitely build a strong Industry-Academia interactive platform
to disseminate new knowledge and technology, meeting the need of Power Utilities.