Study tours: Field trips and study tours form a useful supplemental activity of teaching in all technical and professional institutions. Normally, study tours were arranged for final year students of Civil Engineering School Lucknow during the winter vacations and the duration was about ten days. With about sixty students in the final year, the winter tours involved a lot of advance planning and preparation for comfortable travel, boarding and lodging of the students on project sites and their proper conduct and guidance on the works. Generally, the teachers were not very enthusiastic about leading the motley group of students on study tours. When coaxed by the students to accompany them, they would prepare a programme to suit the preferances of the students. Students normally liked long tours to metropolitan towns, providing opportunities for a lot of sightseeing and fun.
A pack of wolves: That was December 1952, when everybody was waiting for the winter vacations for rest and relaxation. The students were contacting all senior teachers one by one to accompany them on the study tour. None of them was willing to forego his opportunities for rest and recreation during vacations, for spur of the moment decision by the management, about the tour with a pack of wolves. Ultimately, the needle for the conduct of the winter tour of final year students swung towards me. There was almost no time for advance planning and preparation. Trains were running full. Logistics and boarding and lodging of the students on a professional tour of ten days duration was a real problem. Those were the conditions, when we found ourselves at Charbagh Railway Station of Lucknow , waiting for the arrival of Doon Express for an overnight journey from Lucknow to Haridwar. As soon as the whistling train pushed in with overflowing passengers, there was a mad rush for squeezing in and finding a foothold at some of the available places. There was hardly any time for settling down, when the train started moving. Bareilly was the next major stop at the dead of night, when I got some knocks on the window of our cabin. Travellinag ticket examiner was furious, almost mad at our students, blurring out his deep anguish at the behaviour of our students. His pot-shots were still pouring out, when the train started moving again. The next major stop was at Moradabad. A group of our students had by then coaxed the travelling ticket examiner to meet me again and tell me that there was a great rush on the train and that our students had played a commendable role by providing a helping hand to a number of old and infirm passengers in boarding the train and in finding reasonably comfortable places for them in the train. TTE made a wry face and in a mode of abject surrender, told the students that it was their train and they were free to do, whatever they like.
Ganga Canal Headworks at Bhimgoda: We were at Haridwar in the early hours of the morning. Sub-divisional officer of Ganga Canal Headworks had given special permission for the stay of our students at the canal inspection house at Mayapur. Everybody seemed to be happy, refreshed and relaxed. Standing on the ramparts of Mayapur dam the students were thrilled at the sight of Ganga Canal on the left and the vast expanse of river Ganga on the right. Ganga Canal Headworks at Bhimgoda provides a typical example of diversion works of a major river like Ganga in the boulder reach. Originating from Gangotri in the Himalayas, river Ganga flows through narrow mountainous valley, with all the twists and turns and emerges into the plains at Haridwar, where a weir built across the river diverts the dry weather flows of the river into a side channel of the river, which runs upto Mayapur, through Har-ki-pairi and other ghats of Haridwar. Ganga Canal takes off from this side channel at Mayapur. Youth is an unending bundle of energy. The students had a short briefing from the canal officers at Mayapur. They were very excited and got into a brisk trot through the sandy island in the river bed, leading to Bhimgoda, the legendary headworks of Ganga Canal. The headworks stood in a narrow valley flanked by mountain ranges on both sides, full of lush green trees. The canal officers took the students round the works, giving full information about the river training works, head regulator of the side channel and the weir built across the river including details of sluice gates and shutters and down stream protection works. Soon after, the students could be seen, running from one end to another in small groups, all over the headworks, where they were trying to soak in, bit by bit, all that they were able to see.
Lakshman Jhoola: After a relaxing lunch on the sands of Ganga, the party had a boat ride from Bhimgoda to Har-ki-pairi and thereafter moved to Lakshman Jhoola. Rishikesh was a short halt on the way. Rishikesh is a town full of ashrams of sadhus, saints and senior citizens on the banks of river Ganga. Finally the party reached Lakshman Jhoola, where the students found a suspension bridge, thrown across a deep gorge over river Ganga. Lakshman Jhoola provided the students a unique opportunity to witness a typical design of a suspension bridge with towers on both banks of the river, cables anchored on both ends and passing over the towers, following parabolic paths. The vertical suspenders from the cables supported the light foot bridge from end to end. Foot bridge was stiffened by cables and tie rods on the upstream and downstream sides of the foot bridge for dampening the vibrations of the bridge. The students returned to Mayapur after a hectic day, had a sumptuous dinner followed by a relaxing campfire.
Ganga Canal Works from Mayapur to Roorkee: The reach of Ganga Canal from Mayapur to Roorkee provides a classical example of the hurdles that a major canal normally faces before it reaches the watershed. Ganga Canal had to cross a number of hill streams and rivers during its run from Mayapur to Roorkee. When the hill stream is at a higher level than the canal, the natural bed and flow of the stream is not disturbed and the canal is passed under the bed of the stream through a siphon. Ganga Canal had such symphonic crossings below local streams at Ranipur and Pathri. When the levels of the river and canal are more or less at the same level, a level crossing is provided. Level crossing involves free flow of the river water into the canal. Thereafter, regulated flows are passed on in the canal and surplus waters, if any, are escaped in the river through a regulator. Ganga Canal has such a level crossing at Dhanauri. When the bed level of the canal is substantially higher than the high flood level of the river, the canal is carried over the river through an aqueduct. Ganga Canal has such a crossing over river Solani near Roorkee. Then there are a series of falls in the canal. The slopes of the rolling country are normally much steeper than the designed slopes of the canals. The difference is adjusted by the provision of drops or falls at appropriate places. Ganga Canal had falls at Ranipur, Bahadarabad and Pathri. Bahadarabad Hydro-Electric Powerstation was initially constructed for harnessing the energy available from 18 feet head of the fall. Subsequently, Pathri Poerhouse was planned for the utilization of 36 feet of the available head. In the earlier days, navigation was also a very useful function of Ganga Canal. Therefore, navigation channels and navigation locks were provided on all crossings and falls for safe passage of the boats.
After a restful sleep at Mayapur, the students were briefed in the morning about the classical works on Ganga Canal. They were told, that, most of the works were 100 years old and were constructed with bricks in lime mortar. Since construction materials were not readily available at that time, bricks and lime were burnt on project sites. Moreover, level of professional knowledge and research and design facilities available in the country, at that time, was extremely limited and therefore most of the works followed conventional methods of construction and designs. Fortunately, the prints of most of the works were available and the students were very enthusiastic about spending time at the works. The visit started with the head regulator of Ganga Canal at Mayapur. The next halt was at Ranipur, followed by a visit to old powerhouse at Bahadarabad and the new powerhouse under construction at the same site but named as Pathri Power House. The students were very happy to see all types of earthmoving and construction equipment at the project site of Pathri Power House. The visit to the powerstations was conducted by the local canal officers and they answered most of the inquisitive querries from the students. Thereafter, during a short halt at Pathri the students were keen to look at the navigation channel and working of the navigation lock. After short halts at Dhanauri level crossing and Solani Aqueduct the students reached Roorkee in the evening.
Roorkee: The students were on their feet early in the morning. They were very excited at the opportunity of passing through the hallowed portals of hundred years old Thomason college of Civil Engineering Roorkee, which was on its refurbished incarnation as University of Roorkee. The magnificent building of the good old days, built in colonial style on a high patch of land is a very massive and imposing structure. During the visit of the students in 1952, the main building was the centre of most of the academic activities of the university. Students had a detailed tour of the facilities, including class rooms, lecture theatres, drawing halls, convocation hall, model rooms, laboratories, book store and printing press. Thereafter, they had a tour of the outdoor facilities including playgrounds, hostels, students common mess, students club, swimming pool and boat club. This was followed by a short visit to Irrigation Research Institute, where the outdoor models of irrigation works were of special interest to the students. That brought the first leg of the study tour of the students to a happy ending and the students were anxiously
Sirhind Canal Headworks at Ropar: Ropar is a district in Punjab on the banks of river Sutluj at the foot hills of Sivalik range of Himalayas. Ropar is well known for the headworks of Sirhind Canal. Sirhind Canal takes off from the left bank of river Sutluj at Ropar and forms part of one of the oldest and biggest irrigation systems of Indus Basin. Construction of Sirhind Canal was started in 1873 and it was completed and opened for irrigation in 1882. Sirhind Canal flows in the South Westerly direction from Ropar and covers most of the areas in Ludhiana, Bhatinda, Patiala and Malwa regions of Punjab. The students were at Ropar in early hours of the morning. After visiting Ganga Canal headworks at Bhimgoda and driving through works of Ganga Canal in the head reach from Haridwar to Roorkee the students were very excited at having the opportunity of visiting the good old legendary headworks of Sirhind Canal, the lifeline of resurgent Punjab. The students had a conducted tour of river training works, weir, sluice gates, head regulator and related protection works under the shadow of lush green hills of Himachal Pradesh in the north and green and fertile farmlands of Punjab in the south. After a satisfying lunch, the party moved for their last leg of the tour to Delhi.
Delhi: Delhi is the capital city of India situated on the banks of river Jamuna. It had a chequered past going back to pre-historic times. It has been built and rebuilt a number of times and has witnessed the rise and downfall of a large number of dynasties, kingdoms and empires. It is a cosmopolitan city, which has absorbed the cultures of different people, who came from far flung areas and made it their home. In 1952, Delhi was a neat little city of about 2 million people living in what was known as Delhi and New Delhi. Delhi of 2014 is very different which has spread all over in the satellite townships of the national capital region, with a population of about 25 million. Delhi is the seat of the central government and attracts visitors from all over the world. The main interest of our students in visiting Delhi was change, sightseeing and recreation. They were totally relaxed and they were in no hurry to leave Delhi. They had satisfying visits to red fort, kutub minar, some of the tombs and historic monuments and the shopping and eating places of Chandni Chowk and Connaught Place. They also visited the pumping station at Wazirabad and water treatment plant at Chandrawal, from where Delhi draws its water supplies from river Jamuna. and sewage disposal works at Okhla.