Importance of Engineer’s Day & M. Visvesvaraya’s contribution to Indian engineering

The 15th of September is celebrated as Engineer’s Day in memory of India’s engineering icon M. Visvesvaraya. A highly disciplined engineer, he was known for his sincerity, time management and unsurpassable devotion to a cause. He was a civil engineer and his work involved everything from building roadways, to dams and anti-flood systems.

In his life as an engineer, Visvesvaraya engineered many systems to reality. Here are some of his great achievements –

1. In 1895, he designed and carried out the water works of the Municipality of Sukkur in Sind
2. In 1903, he designed and constructed Automatic Gates, patented by him at Lake Fife Storage Reservoir, to at the Khadakvasla Reservoir near Pune. These gates were employed to raise the flood supply level of storage in the reservoir to the highest level likely to be attained by a flood without causing any damage to the dam.
3. Based on the success of these gates, the same system was installed at the Tigra Dam in Gwalior and the Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) Dam in Mandya/ Mysore,Karnataka.
4. Introduced block irrigation system, which is still used in golf courses from around the world to maintain the quality of grass.
5. Designed and developed and anti-flooding system for the city of Hyderabad which was frequently tormented by floods caused by the river Musi.
6. He had a great stint working with the state of Mysore. He’s regarded as the father of modern day Mysore and rightly so. He was responsible for the founding of the Mysore Soap Factory, the Parasitoide Laboratory, the Mysore Iron & Steel Works (now known as Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited) in Bhadravathi, the Sri Jayachamarajendra Polytechnic Institute, the Bangalore Agricultural University, the State Bank of Mysore, The Century Club, Mysore Chambers of Commerce and numerous other industrial ventures. This was in 1909.
7. He was instrumental in the founding of the Government Engineering College at Bangalore in 1917, one of the first engineering institutes in India. This institution was later named the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE)

A consummate engineer, Visvesvaraya never stopped learning. He would often be sent to other countries, like China, Canada, USA, Russia, Egypt etc, where he would study various engineering practices and solve problems in India using the learnt technologies. He holds a unique distinction of obtaining Membership of London Institution of Civil Engineers for an unbroken 50 years. Post Independence, he was also awarded India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna.

Visvesvaraya died at a grand old age of 101, in the year 1962, and to this day, 15th September of every year in India has been celebrating a century of engineering brilliance.

What Visvesvaraya stood for, was the spirit of problem solving, the unquenchable zeal to learn, passion towards a cause, unquestionable dedication and resolute discipline. The characteristics define the spirit of engineering.

On this day, it is important to remember, that engineering is not an educational qualification. It is a way of thinking. A way of thinking that is in every problem solver in the world. It is a way of life.

There is an engineer in everyone and today goes out to the problem solver in you.

Content source – Wikipedia