M. Visvesvaraya

Visvesvaraya was a man of principles and values. He was a very honest person who gave his best towards his profession and country. He valued cleanliness and was impeccably dressed even when he was well into his 90s.

This great Indian engineer lived a long and productive life and died on 14 April 1962 at the ripe old age of 102 years.

His alma mater, the College of Engineering, Pune, erected a statue in his honor.

Visvesvaraya was born into a Telugu Brahmin family in a village near Bangalore, India. His father was a prominent Sanskrit scholar of his times. His parents were very simple but principled people.

Even though the family was not rich, his parents wanted their son to get good education. He completed his primary education from his village school and went to high school in Bangalore.

His father died when he was just 15 and the family was plunged into poverty. In order to continue his education Visvesvaraya started giving tuitions to small children and earned his livelihood this way.

He joined the Central College in Bangalore and studied hard. He was a good student in spite of all the hardships in his life and completed his Bachelor of Arts in 1881.

He went to the prestigious College of Engineering at Pune after he managed to get some help from the Government.

After his graduation in 1884, he found a job with the Public Works Department (PWD) of Mumbai and joined as an Assistant Engineer. Over the course of this job he served in Nasik, Khandesh and Pune.

He then joined the Indian Irrigation Commission and helped to implement a complex system of irrigation in the Deccan area. During this time he was told to devise a method of supplying water from the river Sindhu to a small town called Sukkur.

He designed and carried out the waterworks for the Municipality of Sukkur in 1895. He is credited with the development of the Block System which would prevent the wasteful flow of water in dams.

His work was becoming so popular that the Government of India sent him to Aden to study water supply and drainage system in 1906-07. He did so and designed a project based on his study which was implemented in Aden.

The Visakhapatnam port was in danger of being eroded from the sea. Visvesvaraya with his high intelligence and capabilities came up with a good solution to solve this issue.

He is best remembered for the instrumental role he played in the construction of the Krishna Raja Sagara Lake and dam in 1924. This dam not only became the main source of water for irrigation for the nearby areas, but was also the main source of drinking water for several cities.