Engineer's Day: Know more about Sir M Visvesvaraya's ground-breaking work

India observes Engineer's Day on September 15 in honour of Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. His contribution to the field of engineering is unparalleled. Born on September 15, 1860, Visvesvaraya dedicated nearly 102 year of his life in service of the nation, it is only befitting we celebrate him.

Visvesvaraya was brought up in a Telugu Brahmin family and studied in a Kannada medium primary school in Chikkaballapur. After he completed hus bachelors degree, he decided he wanted to be an engineer and thus enrolled for Civil engineering course at College of Engineering.

The civil enginner was previously working with Public Works department of Mumbai and later joined the irrigation commission which led to implementation of irrgation systems in Deccan area.

The automated weir water floodgates installed at Khadakvasla Reservoir, near Pune, was his patented design. Similar floodgates were installed in Tigra and KSR Dams following its success in Pune.

He has also served as Sanitary Engineer in Bombay and was a member of sanitary board. It is not known to many but Visveswaraya introduced new system of irrigation known as 'Block System' in 1903 and represented Bombay Government at Simla Irrigation Commission in the following year.

He also supervised and carried out engineering works on Musi river and was condulting engineer to Hyderabad or Nizam State. It was because of his design of flood protection system for Musi river, that he achieved celebrity status.

He was also crucial part of the team that created a developing system to protect Vishakapatanam port from sea erosion. The dam he created was biggest reservoir in Asia at the time. He also was on the advisory panel while Mokama Bridge was being built over Ganga.

He was also responsible for the founding of Mysore soap factory, Parasitoid Laboratory, Mysore Iron & Steel Works (now known as Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited) in Bhadravathi and many more initiatives.

Published on: Wednesday, September 14, 2022, 04:10 PM IST