Engineer’s Day is celebrated every year on 15 September in India. This day is the birthday of India’s great engineer and ‘Bharat Ratna’ recipient Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. Even today Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya is remembered with great respect as the Vishwakarma of modern India. Dr. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, who dedicated his life in the service of the country as a great engineer, scientist and creator of his time, is counted among the great talents of not only India but the world.
Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, who lived a glorious life of 101 years, will always spread his light in the Indian sky. In 1968, the Government of India declared the birth date of Dr. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya as ‘Engineer’s Day’. Since then, every year on this auspicious occasion, all Indian engineers gather and pay tribute to his inspiring deeds and ideals, self-introspect on their activities and take a pledge to celebrate it as Sankalp Diwas. Sankalp discharges its responsibilities and duties with dedication.
After the independence of India, talented engineers have also contributed significantly in the construction and development of new India. For the overall development of villages and cities, many works of infrastructure construction including roads, bridges and irrigation reservoirs are being done. Our engineers have accelerated all these construction works with their efficiency. Along with this contribution of engineers in the development of the state and the country, on this occasion of ‘Engineer’s Day’, ‘Bha
Visvesvaraya was born on 15 September 1861 at a place called ‘Muddenahalli’ in Mysore, which is now in Karnataka. Born in a very poor family, Visvesvaraya’s childhood was spent in great financial crisis. His father was a doctor. Years ago, his ancestors had come and settled in Mysore from a place called ‘Mokshagundam’ in Andhra Pradesh. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya completed his primary education from his birthplace itself. For further studies, he took admission in ‘Central College’ in Bangalore. But here he had lack of money. So he had to take tuitions. Visvesvaraya secured first position in the B.A. examination in 1881. After this, with the help of the Mysore government, he took admission in ‘Science College’ in Pune to study engineering. He demonstrated his ability by securing first position in the LCE and FCE (present-day BE degree) examinations of 1883. Due to this achievement, the Government of Maharashtra appointed him as Assistant Engineer in Nashik.
Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya has made an unprecedented contribution in making Mysore, Karnataka in South India a developed and prosperous region. About 55 years ago, when the country was not independent, many great achievements like ‘Krishnarajasagar Dam’, ‘Bhadravathi Iron and Steel Works’, ‘Mysore Sandal Oil and Soap Factory’, ‘Mysore University’, ‘Bank of Mysore’ and many others were possible only due to the hard efforts of Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. That is why he is also called the Bhagiratha of Karnataka. When he was only 32 years old, he prepared a plan to supply water to Sukkur town from the Indus River, which was liked by all the engineers. The government formed a committee to find ways to improve the irrigation system. For this, Visvesvaraya invented a new block system. He made steel doors, which helped in stopping the flow of water from the dam. His system was praised wholeheartedly by the British officials. Today this system is being used all over the world. Visvesvaraya also prepared plans to dam the waters of two rivers named ‘Musa’ and ‘Isa’. After this, he was appointed the Chief Engineer of Mysore.
