September 15 celebrated as Engineer's Day across the country

September 15 is celebrated across the country as the Engineers’ Day on the bird anniversary of India’s pioneer engineer-administrator Dr Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (15 September 1861 – 12 April 1962). He was also a great scholar, statesman and the Diwan of Mysore. He is a recipient of the Indian Republic's highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the British Indian Empire (KCIE) by King George V for his contributions to the public good. He is held in high regard as a pre-eminent engineer of India.

Engineering as an academic discipline was introduced by the British in the mid-19th century. The initial object was to produce civil engineers who could assist the British in the development works. These works consisted of road building, bridge construction, canal excavation, irrigation work, drinking water connection, sewerage work etc. The Thomason College of Civil Engineering, Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee) was established in 1847.

A College of Engineering at Pune, from where M Visvesvaraya graduated in 1884, was started in 1854. In 1859, came the Madras College of Engineering, which trained civil engineers in both military and civil disciplines. In 1880, the Government College of Howrah, later called Bengal College of Engineering- Shibpur, was founded. When Benaras Hindu University was established in 1916, Mahamana Madan Mohan Malaviya got included the studies of different engineering disciplines like metallurgy, mining, industrial chemistry etc in the university curriculum.

Visvesvaraya was the chief engineer responsible for the construction of the Krishna Raja Sagara dam in Mysore as well as the chief designer of the flood protection system for the city of Hyderabad. He began his pioneering work as an Assistant Engineer in in Public Works Department of Bombay Government in February, 1884. Visvesvaraya was involved in Pune suburban water supply project. He devised sluice gates at Lake Fife in Khadakvasala, Pune for which he took patent. This technology stopped the loss of excess water. He also lent consultancy services to Nizam of Hyderabad after the great Musi floods of 1908. The two projects he advised the Nizam government was related to sewerage and reservoir of river Musi, a tributary of Krishna in 1909. The role played by Dr Visvesvaraya in setting up of Hindustan Aeronautical Limited in Bangalore in 1940 is less discussed.