Sir M Visvesvaraya - (Engineer's Day - September 15)

From Sampath’s Desk:

 

ENGINEER’S DAY (SEPTEMBER 15)

 

In commemoration of Sir M Visvesvaraya

 (15 September  1861 - 12/14 April 1962)

 Father of Indian Engineering

 

September 15 is the birthday of Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya considered the Father of Indian Engineering, who was the 19^th Diwan of the erstwhile Mysore Kingdom. He was born in a Muddenahalli village, in Chikballapur Taluk, Kolar District. He had his higher education in Central College, Bangalore then affiliated to the University of Madras. He did his Civil Engineering in the College of Engineering, Pune, University of Bombay.

 

The legendary engineer Sir Visvesvaraya, was fondly known as Sir MV or the Builder of India. Engineer’s Day 2020 marked his 159th birth anniversary.

 

Sir M Visvesvaraya was a pioneer of Indian engineering who did “unthinkable achievements” and that is why his birthday is celebrated as ‘Engineers Day’ in India. His plans and competent method of building dams across India have prevented colossal flooding in India till date. He was awarded the highest Indian honour, the 'Bharat Ratna' in 1955. He wrote the book ‘Planned Economy for India’ which is considered ‘magnum opus’ in the field of economic development. India’s pre-eminence in producing excellent engineering minds has been taken in high esteem the world over. If today the Indian engineers across domains have been part of the world’s greatest engineering marvels, perhaps the foundation for the same was laid by him decades ago. He was the one who kindled the fire, passion and penchant over a century ago, who laid the foundation of modern India’s engineering legacy and excellence. He was undoubtedly the pioneering figure of Indian engineering. 

 

Timeline of Sir M Visvesvaraya's career:

 

• He started as an Assistant Engineer in Bombay, 1885; served in Nasik, Khandesh (mainly in Dhule) and Pune
• Services lent to Municipality of Sukkur, Sind, 1894; designed and carried out waterworks for the municipality
• Executive Engineer, Surat, 1896
• Assistant Superintending Engineer, Pune,1897–1899; visited China and Japan, 1898
• Executive Engineer for Irrigation, Pune, 1899
• Sanitary Engineer, Bombay, and member, Sanitary Board, 1901; gave evidence before Indian Irrigation Commission
• Designed and constructed automatic gates patented by him at Lake Fife Storage Reservoir; introduced a new system of irrigation known as "Block System", 1903; represented the Bombay Government at Simla Irrigation Commission, 1904; on special duty, 1905
• Superintending Engineer, 1907; 
• Visited Egypt, Canada, the United States, and Russia, 1908
• Consulting Engineer to Hyderabad/Nizam State supervised and carried out engineering works on Musi river; Hyderabad floods of 1909
• Retired from British Service, 1909
• Chief Engineer and Secretary to Government of Mysore, 1909
• Diwan of Mysore, Public Works Department and Railway, 1913
• Board of Directors of Tata Steel, 1927–1955
• Diwan of Mysore

 

His mammoth work carried out post-retirement:

After opting for voluntary retirement in 1908, he took a foreign tour to study industrialized nations. Then, for a short period, he worked for the Nizam of Hyderabad. In 1912, he was appointed the Diwan (second minister) of Mysore and served for seven years during the tenure of Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, Maharaja of Mysore. He was instrumental to the founding of Government Engineering College at Bangalore in 1917, one of the first engineering institutes in India.

 

Awards and recognitions:

Visvesvaraya was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1911.[21] In 1915, while he was Diwan of Mysore, Visvesvaraya was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) by the British for his contributions to the public good. Post-Independence of India, he was awarded the nation's highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955 and honorary membership of London Institution of Civil Engineers, a fellowship from the Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore), and several honorary degrees including D.Sc., LL.D., D.Litt. from eight universities in India.

M Visvesvaraya designed the locality of Jayanagar in south Bangalore as one of the first planned neighbourhoods in the city. It was also Asia’s largest housing colony at that time and had a well-planned layout.

Once MV Sir saved a train from derailing and thereby many precious lives of passengers. Yes, it was a midnight when a train was pacing towards its destination at a high speed howling in the pitched darkness. MV Sir was sleeping with his head very near an open train window. Still, he could sense danger to the train as he observed unsteady movement of the train and heard unusual and eerie noises/sounds generated by the moving train that made him predict an imminent danger ahead. He suddenly woke up from his sleep, jumped from his sleep berth, pulled the danger/emergency chain, and brought the train to a halt. Railway employees and passengers surrounded and confronted him with a question, “Why did you stop the train by pulling the chain?” Some even suspected that he did it inadvertently in his sleeping mood. Pat came the reply from him, “There must be a crack in the rail some meters away. And if the train goes over it, a mishap may take place. You check it” At first, everyone thought that he was just mocking. But the railway employees didn’t want to take any chances. They got down and checked the railway track only to find out a big crack meters away from where the train halted. The crack was repaired and the track was restored to normalcy. After some time, the train started proceeding towards its destination. 

Let us salute the Father of Indian Engineering on his birthday Sep 15.

 

(R.SAMPATH)

16/9/2021