While still a student, he joined hands with a fellow villager, Somnath Mohanty; Loknath Sahu, a member of the village's landed gentry; and two other friends to start the Erbong school. The school began its life in the cowshed of a math. Later, they applied for long-term lease of about 16 acres of the math's barren land. Permission was granted, and in 1963 the school got a five-room thatched mud structure. Hata recounts how the rooms served as classes during the day and hostel at night. "As the school's land was a cemetery, we couldn't get any boarders at first," he narrates. Then he decided to move from his home in the village to the campus itself. There were just 11 students in class ten. But gradually the rolls swelled and in '65, five more rooms were added. However, the school still was short on funds. At first the villagers donated both labour and money but their means limited their generosity. Hata then thought of taking up cultivation to finance the school. A marshy piece of land belonging to the panchayat was drained and planted with mango, banana, coconut trees and vegetables. Gradually, the money from sales helped expand the school and buy necessary study materials.