National Engineer’s Day celebrated on September 15 on the birth anniversary of Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. (Photos: Visvesvaraya National Memorial Trust/Pratham Books)

The country celebrates Engineer’s Day on September 15 to appreciate the contributions of eminent engineer Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya who was born on September 15, 1861 in a village called Muddenahalli in Karnataka. He had studied Bachelor of Arts (BA) from the University of Madras and pursued civil engineering at the College of Science in Pune.

Visvesvaraya’s career spanned over 34 years with his first job as an assistant engineer in the Public Works Department of the Government of Bombay. He later joined the Mysore service as chief engineer and had contributed to several technical projects in Hyderabad, Mysore, Maharashtra and Odisha.

Among some of his contributions include the block system of irrigation in the Deccan canals in 1899, irrigation system with water floodgates at the Khadakvasla reservoir. The irrigation system was later installed at Gwalior’s Tigra Dam and Mysuru’s Krishnaraja Sagara (KRS) dam, the latter of which created one of the largest reservoirs in Asia at the time.

IN VIDEO | Engineers’ Day: Sir M Visvesvaraya the builder of dams, bridges and a nation

He took voluntary retirement from state service in 1918, over his disagreement with the proposal to set aside state jobs for the “non-brahmin” community.

Apart from his contributions in the field of engineering, he was also called the “precursor of economic planning in India”, according to the Institution of Engineers India (IEI). His books, “Reconstructing India” and “Planned Economy of India” were published in 1920 and 1934, respectively. He was awarded knight in 1915 while serving as the Diwan of Mysore, and received Bharat Ratna in 1955.

The eminent engineer Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya breathed his last in 1962.