Engineers Day: In 1968, the Government of India announced September 15 as National Engineer’s Day to honour the legendary engineer Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya.
Bharat Ratna Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya’s birthday on September 15 is celebrated as Engineers’ Day in India. Sir M Visvesvaraya contributed significantly to the field of engineering and education. He is considered among the greatest nation-builders who played a crucial role in constructing dams, reservoirs and hydro-power projects of modern India. Sir M Visvesvaraya oversaw the construction of several architectural marvels as chief engineer, including the Krishna Raja Sagar dam in Karnataka and the flood protection system of Hyderabad.
Engineers Day
National Engineers Day is observed every year on September 15 on the birth anniversary of the legendary engineer Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. The day is observed every year to pay tribute to Visvesvaraya and also to commemorate the contributions of the engineers to the nation.
The day sees various government and private stakeholders organising events to celebrate the work of engineers in the country. The various ministries of the government hold workshops, seminars, lectures and events for honouring engineers.
Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya
Born in 1861, Visvesvaraya studied Bachelor of Arts (BA) from the University of Mysore before he shifted streams to study engineering at one of the oldest engineering colleges in Asia, the College of Science in Pune. Visvesvaraya started his career in the Public Works Department for the Government of Bombay. His work included many complex projects including a patented irrigation system with water floodgates at the Khadakvasla reservoir near Pune and the Krishna Raja Sagara Dam in Mysore.
He was made the 19th Diwan of Mysore, serving from 1912 to 1918, and received many honours including independent India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna. He also played an important role in the establishment of the Government Engineering College at Bangalore in 1917, which was later renamed in his honour.
In 1968, the government of India decided to honour Visvesvaraya for his numerous achievements in civil engineering by naming his birth anniversary on September 15 as the date to commemorate National Engineer’s Day.
He was an engineering pioneer of India whose work was reflected in harnessing water resources and building and consolidating dams across the country.
His work was becoming so popular that the Government of India sent him to Aden (Yemen) to study water supply and drainage systems in 1906-07.
He was an Engineer who had planned the Indian Economy in 1934.
He was awarded an Honorary Membership of the London Institution of Civil Engineers for an unbroken 50 years.
And above everything, he was conferred India’s highest honour, the Bharat Ratna in 1955.
Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya died in 1962. In 2018, Google launched a Doodle on his birthday to celebrate his genius works.
In 1903, Sir M Visvesvaraya designed and patented automatic barrier water floodgates. Also called Block System, it had automated doors that close in the event of water overflow. It was first installed at the Khadakvasla reservoir in Pune.
In 1917, he established the Government Engineering College, now known as Bengaluru’s University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering.
Following a catastrophic flood in 1908 in Hyderabad, the then Nizam requested Sir M Visvesvaraya’s services to design a drainage system and protect the city from flooding. The engineer proposed the construction of storage reservoirs and also built a sewage farm outside the city to prevent pollution of the Musi river that flows through Hyderabad.
| Name | Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya ( M. Visvesvaraya ) |
| Profession | Indian civil engineer, administrator, and statesman |
| Date of Birth | 15 September 1861 |
| Birth place | Muddenahalli, Kingdom of Mysore (in present-day Chikkaballapura district, Karnataka) |
| Death | April 1962 (aged 100), Bangalore, India |
| Family | Telugu Brahmin family |
| Father | Mokshagundam Srinivasa Shastry |
| Mother | Venkatalakshmi |
| Primary Education | Bangalore |
| Graduation | Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree from the University of Madras. |
| Engineering Diploma | Diploma in Civil Engineering |
| Engineering College | College of Engineering, Pune (then College of Science at the University of Bombay) |
| Popular works | Khadakvasla Dam near Pune. |
| Tigra Dam in Gwalior | |
| KRS Dam at Mysore, Karnataka | |
| Laxmi Talav Dam near Kolhapur, Maharashtra | |
| Flood protection system for the city of Hyderabad ( Musi River ) | |
| He was instrumental in developing a system to protect Visakhapatnam port from sea erosion. This dam created the biggest reservoir in Asia at the time of its construction | |
| Tungabhadra Dam in Hospet, Karnataka. | |
| Awards | Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1911 by King Edward VII |
| In 1915, while he was Dewan of Mysore, Visvesvaraya was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) by King George V for his contributions to the public good | |
| After India attained independence, Visvesvaraya received the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, in 1955 | |
| He received an honorary membership from the Institution of Civil Engineers, London | |
| fellowship from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore | |
| Honorary degrees including D.Sc., LL.D., D.Litt. from eight universities in India | |
| President of the 1923 session of the Indian Science Congress | |
| Recognitions | Visvesvaraya Technological University in Belagavi (to which most engineering colleges in Karnataka are affiliated) was named in his honour |
| University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, Bangalore | |
| Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore | |
| Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur | |
| Visvesvaraya Hostel, IIT (BHU) Varanasi | |
| Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, Bangalore | |
| The College of Engineering, Pune, his alma mater, erected a statue in Visvesvaraya’s honour. Two metro stations in India, one in Bangalore on the Purple Line (Sir M. Visveshwaraya Station, Central College), and another one in Delhi on the Pink Line (Sir Vishweshwaraiah Moti Bagh), are named after him | |
| On 15 September 2018, to celebrate his 158th birthday, Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was honored with a Google Doodle |
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