Water Resources Development Training Centre at Roorkee: Water resources development training centre was established as one of the departments of the University of Roorkee in the year 1955 for running field oriented training programmes, related to planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of water resources and hydro-power projects for sponsored service personnel of Afro Asian Countries. The centre was inaugurated by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru on 25 November 1955. The prime mover and the founder director of the centre was Ajudhya Nath Khosla, who was also the vice-chancellor of the University of Roorkee at that time. Dr AN Khosla had graduated as a civil engineer from Thomason College of Civil Engineering Roorkee in 1916, He belonged to the Indian Service of Engineers and had a distinguished career in irrigation department of Punjab. Subsequently, he worked as the chairman of central water and power commission from 1945 to 1952 and was responsible for the development of most of the river valley projects of the country, including Bhakra, Damodar Valley and Hirakund. Water resources development training centre was his brain child. The training at the water resources development training centre led to one year Post Graduate Diploma Course and two years Master’s degree course in Water Resources Development. Serving personnel from almost all states of India and more than fifty Afro-Asian countries had benefitted from the training programmes of the centre.
University of Roorkee in 1967: Thomason College of Civil Engineering Roorkee, had become the University of Roorkee after its centenary celebrations in 1949. The good old building of Thomason College of Civil Engineering, which was sometimes the hub of all academic activities of the college was still standing majestically, wondering all the time, at the non-stop growth of high rise buildings all over the campus, for accommodating the fast growing departments of the university. The student strength had gone up from 100 to 3000. All types of departments for basic and applied research had come up, wherever, there was some space to squeeze in. Our good old barracks or hostels had been converted into residential accommodation for members of the teaching staff or had been demolished for accommodating a string of multi-storey hostel buildings, to provide residential accommodation for the students of the university. The institution, which was engaged in training field oriented officers for public works departments of the state and defence services of the country for almost hundred years, seemed to have undergone total transformation with the times. The country which remained neglected for centuries was moving ahead for fast paced development. The buzzword was manpower, more manpower, skilled manpower and of course innovative and creative manpower. In the good old days, Thomason College was one of the most prestigious institutions of professional education. Naturally, all development activities of the University of Roorkee were geared to ensure that, the show goes on and it continued to remain on the pedestal as one of the leading institutions of higher education in engineering and technology, for meeting the fast growing and diversified manpower requirements of the country.
River valley projects: Rivers commence their marathon journey from remote and inaccessible areas in the mountains, speeding through narrow valleys and gorges, negotiating steep slopes and falls and finally emerging in the plains. Thereafter, they move leisurely on their meandering path through the flood plains, transporting life giving waters and fertilizing silt to the remotest parts of their basin. Since times immemorial, rivers have supported life and have functioned as the cradles of civilization. River valley projects are all about taming the rivers for meeting the multipurpose needs of the people and minimizing the woes due to floods and famines. Ganga Canal is one of the biggest canal systems of the world. It was a monumental work, conceived and built during the times of East India Company from 1842 to 1854, when the know how and techniques of construction and availability of suitable construction materials and equipment was extremely limited. That was perhaps, the beginning of the process of development, which completely transformed the lives of people of western Uttar Pradesh.
Before independence and the partition of India, West Punjab was perhaps the most developed and prosperous agricultural regions of the country with a sprawling network of canals fed by Indus and its tributaries Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Vyas and Sutluj. At that time, Eastern Punjab was a comparatively undeveloped region. Since then, Bhakra and Nangal Dams and the network of Bhakra canals have completely changed the landscape. Subsequently, Indus Waters Treaty signed by India and Pakistan in 1960 has led to a lot of rethinking, leading to radical changes in the development strategies of river valley projects. Under the treaty, the waters of western rivers Indus, Chenab and Jhelum were assigned to Pakistan and India got the exclusive use of flows of eastern rivers Ravi, Beas and Sutluj, within the territorial boundaries of India. This involved the construction of dams on rivers Ravi and Beas and link tunnels for the inter-basin transfers of water from Ravi to Beas and Beas to Sutluj and in the process the falls and drops in levels have been freely utilized for the generation of hydro-electric power.
My second stint at Roorkee: I joined the Master’s Course in Water Resources Development at the Water Resources Development Training Centre of the University of Roorkee in July 1967. The centre was running only one course and the number of trainees was thirty. The head of the training centre had been the chief engineer of the Ramganga River Valley Project. One of the professors happened to be the serving director of Central Water and Power Commission and one professor happened to be my batch mate during my days at Thomason College. He joined the university after a doctorate from Imperial College of Science in London. Other members of the staff were serving officers drawn from irrigation departments of the states or from the central water and power commission. All teaching related to advanced mathematics, computer programming, fluid mechanics, applied geology and laboratory work was handled from time to time by teaching staff drawn from different departments of the university. The trainees were serving engineers ( assistant engineers and executive engineers ) sponsored by the irrigation departments of the states. Some trainees of the rank of assistant directors and deputy directors were sponsored by the central water and power commission. Then there were sponsored candidates from Afro Asian Countries, which included trainees from Viet Nam, Afghanistan and Sudan. Afro-Asian Hostel provided comfortable boarding, lodging and living conditions to all the trainees.
Study tours of on-going projects: Study tours were conducted in phases and provided opportunities to visit most of the major river valley projects of the country. Since, most of the trainees were serving engineers with varied experience of construction, opportunities were provided on the project sites for free and frank discussions related to the problems faced during investigations, planning, design and construction. That provided a tremendous learning experience for the trainees as also for the project personnel. Bhakra dam was one of the highest concrete gravity dams of the world rising to 741 feet or 226 metres above the foundations. It went through all types of improvisations in rising from the foundations to the top. Thein dam on Ravi and Pong Dam and Pandoh Dam on Beas along with the link tunnels and a network of powerhouses for generation of hydro-electricity are a testimony to the undying spirit of men involved in transforming the lives of the people. Damodar Valley Project with dams on river Damodar and its tributaries and a series of powerhouses, turned the flood ravaged regions of Bengal and Bihar into one of the most industrialized regions of the country. Hirakund Dam, is a composite structure of earth, concrete and masonry. It is the longest major earthen dam in India. It has helped in controlling the floods in the lower delta region of river Mahanadi and provides water, power and irrigation facilities in the drought prone areas of the basin. Idduki Dam is another example of a classical arch dam constructed across river Periyar in Kerala. The water is diverted through underground tunnels to an underground powerhouse which generates 780 mW of power through six Pelton type high head turbines.
The whole environment during the Water Resources Development course was field oriented and revived memories of the good old days of Roorkee.
Aftermath: The water resources development course at University of Roorkee, almost twenty two years after graduation from erstwhile Thomason College of Civil Engineering was more like a refresher course. It was a great learning experience and was extremely rejuvenating and provided fresh bursts of energy and vision for facing the incoming challenges.