Roorkee

Roorkee Roorkee
City
Population  (2001)
• Total	252,784
Website	210.212.78.56/roorkee/

Roorkee (Hindi: रुड़की Rūṛkī) is a City and a Municipal council in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is also known for Roorkee Cantonment, one of country's oldest cantonments , and the headquarters of Bengal Engineer Group (Bengal Sappers) since 1853 .

It is located on the banks of the Ganga canal on the National highway between Delhi and Dehradun.

Etymology

Roorkee derives its name from Ruri, the wife of a Bargujar Rajput chieftain, and earlier it was even spelled as 'ruri ki'. Vernacular belief amongst villagers around roorkee is that it got its name from "Roron ki" i.e a dwelling of Rors.

History

Watercolor (1863) titled, "The Ganges Canal, Roorkee, Saharanpur District (U.P.)." The canal was the brainchild of Sir Proby Cautley; construction began in 1840, and the canal was opened by Governor-General Lord Dalhousie in April 1854.

Photograph (2008) of an East India Company-era (1854) Ganeshpur bridge (on the Roorkee-Dehradun Highway) above Ganges Canal in Roorkee

Roorkee was the capital of a Moghul Mahal (similar to a present day Pargana) during the time of Akbar, as is referred in Ain-e-Akbari, authored by Abul Fazal .

During the 18th century, it came under the rule of Landhaura state, till the death of its Bargujar king, Raja Ramdaval Dev in 1813 and later, became a part of the territories of the British East India Company.

Before 1840s, when the work on the Ganga Canal began under the aegis of Proby Cautley, an officer in British Army, it was a mere mud built village on the banks of the hill torrent, named Solani . Digging work on the Upper Ganga Canal formally began in April 1842, and soon this village started developing into a city. The canal was formally opened in April 8, 1854, irrigating over 767,000 acres (3,100 km²) in 5,000 villages.

Another factor that contributed to the city's rapid growth was the inception of the 'Roorkee College', which has its origin in the training classes started in 1845 to train local youth to assist in the civil engineering works in the making of the Upper Ganga Canal . On November 25 1847, the college was formally constituted, through a proposal by the Sir James Thomason, Lt. Governor of North Western Province (1843-53) , and after his death in 1853, the college was rechristened as 'Thomason College of Civil Engineering'. The college later upgraded to University of Roorkee in 1949, and on September 21, 2001, through an Act of Indian parliament, it was made one of Indian Institutes of Technology, IIT Roorkee.

The municipality of Roorkee was created in 1868 , when it was already home to the Bengal Sappers and Miners since 1853, and two artillery units were stationed here . Today, the Roorkee Cantonment has a large army base with headquarters for Bengal Engineering Group and Centre (BEG&C), also known as Bengal Sappers, established in 1803.

Later in 1901, when the city had a population of 17,197, it was made headquarters of the Roorkee Tehsil, in Saharanpur district of the United Province of the British Raj; the tehsil included in it 426 villages (of the parganas of Jwalapur, Manglaur and Bhagwanpur) and six towns, most important among them being Haridwar and Manglaur.. The Old Cemetery in the city is today a protected monument, by Archaeological Survey of India

Roorkee is also famous for the shrine of 13th century, Sufi saint Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari - the dargah is also known as Sarkar Sabir Pak - situated in Piran Kaliyar village, where an annual 15-day spiritual fair (Urs) is held in his honour.

Roorkee has many firsts in Indian history to its credit:

• It had the first engineering college in Asia (and in the British Empire outside Great Britain) established in 1845 .
• India's first rail locomotive, named Mary Lind, ran here on December 22 1851 between Roorkee and Piran Kaliyar. The railway line was built to carry soil used for the construction of the upper Ganga canal aqueduct from Piran Kaliyar, 10 km away from the city . The locomotive rail paths are still intact.

• India's first aqueduct was constructed over the Solani river, near Roorkee, part of the Ganga canal project, which itself was India's first irrigation work in North India, started by the British .

Geography

Roorkee is located at 29.87°N 77.88°E / 29.87; 77.88. It has an average elevation of 268 metres (879 feet). Roorkee is 172 km north of the Indian capital New Delhi and located between the rivers Ganga and Yamuna, close to the foot hills of Himalayas. Before the creation of Uttarakhand on November 9 2000 , Roorkee was a part of the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Climate

Roorkee
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D     0     22 2     230     25 6     40     30 7     0     37 10     100     38 16     40     39 21     700     34 20     800     34 22     460     33 22     0     30 12     10     27 7     190     22 4 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °C █ Precipitation totals in mm Source: GAIA case studies
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D     0     72 36     9.1     77 43     1.6     86 45     0     99 50     3.9     100 61     1.6     102 70     28     93 68     31     93 72     18     91 72     0     86 54     0.4     81 45     7.5     72 39 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F █ Precipitation totals in inches

Due to its location away from any major water body and its close proximity to the Himalayas, Roorkee has an extreme and erratic continental climate. Summers start in late March and go on uptil early July, with average temperatures around 28^oC (83^oF). The monsoon season starts in July and goes on uptil October, with torrential rainfall, due to the blocking of the monsoon clouds by the Himalayas. The post monsoon season starts in October and goes on uptil late November, with average temperatures sliding from 21^oC (70^oF) to 15^oC (58^oF). Winters start in December, with lows close to freezing and frequent cold waves due to the cold katabatic winds blowing from the Himalayas. The total annual rainfall is about 2600 mm (102 in).

Transport

Roorkee comes under Northern Railway region of Indian Railways and is connected to major Indian cities.

The nearest airport is Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun, though the preferred one is Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

Roorkee's major neighbour-cities are Dehradun, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Ambala and Chandigarh. The National Highway 58 (NH58) (Delhi-Haridwar-Mana Pass) and NH73 (Panchkula/Chandigarh - Yamuna Nagar - Roorkee) pass through the heart of the city.

Demographics

As of 2001 India census, Roorkee had a population of 2,52,784. Males constituted 53% of the population and females 47%. Roorkee has an average literacy rate of 82%, higher than the national average of 64%: male literacy is 81%, and female literacy is 72%. 11% of the population is under 6 years of age. The city has 61% Hindus, 28% Muslims, 8% Punjabis/Sikhs, 0.3% Christians and 2.7% Jains.

With a population of about 2,52,784 inhabitants, it is the third largest Municipal Council in the state of Uttarakhand, after Haridwar & Haldwani.

Languages spoken are Hindi, English, Urdu and Punjabi.

Education

Roorkee is a well known centre of education and research. It is best known for Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (formerly University of Roorkee and originally the Thomason College of Civil Engineering).

The Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh started its operations in India, from a single room in the main building of erstwhile 'Thomason College of Civil Engineering', when it shifted to India from Lahore in Pakistan after the Partition of India in 1947; it continued to operate from the premises in Roorkee, till 1954, when it shifted to its present premises in Chandigarh.

Roorkee is also home to several government research institutes: Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Irrigation Research Institute (IRI), Irrigation Design Organization (IDO) and National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) [1].

With the availability of numerous schools, colleges and institutions for higher education and professional degrees, students come for enrollment from all over India and abroad. In addition to the university, the notable colleges and schools in Roorkee are:

University

• Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee

Engg. Colleges

• College of Engineering Roorkee (COER)
• TechWords, West Canal Road, ROORKEE
• Quantum School of Technology, Mandawar,Ddn Road, Roorkee
• Phonics School of Engineering, Roorkee
• Hermes Engg. College, Roorkee
• Roorkee Institute of Technology (RIT)
• Bishambar Sahai Institute of Technology

Managment Colleges

• Bishambhar Sahai Law Institute
• Phonics School of Management, Roorkee
• Seventh Day Adventist Degree College
• Bishambar Sahai Management Institute
• Roorkee Institute of Management Sciences (RIMS)
• Institute of Management Studies--(IMS)

Colleges

• Roorkee College of Pharmacy
• K.L. Polytechnic, Roorkee
• Roorkee School for the Deaf
• BSM Law College
• KLDAV Degree College
• BSM PG College
• SDPC Girls' College
• Methodist Girls' Degree College
• Roorkee Degree College
• Roorkee institute of medical science

Schools

• Adarsh Bal Niketen - CBSE
• St. Gabriel's Academy
• St. Ann's Sr. Sec. School
• Army School
• Knox Memorial School
• St. Joseph School
• Kendriya Vidyalaya - I
• Kendriya Vidyalaya - II
• Flora Dale Public School (Children's Sr. Sec. School)
• St. John's Senior Secondary School - CBSE
• St. John's Senior Secondary School - ICSE
• Montfort School
• Sarvagya Public School
• Greenways Modern School
• Chandra Shekhar Public School, Roorkee
• Saraswati Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School
• Roorkee Public School
• Doon Public School - Roorkee
• St. Mark's Academy,Delhi Rd., Roorkee
• B.S.M. Intermediate College
• KLDAV Intermediate College
• Arya Kanya Pathshala Intermediate College
• Moolraj Girls' Intermediate College
• Sofia Girls' School
• Government Boys' Intermediate College
• Methodist Girls' Intermediate College
• Sri Gandhi Mahila Shilpa Mahavidyalya Intermediate College
• Marwari Intermediate College
• City public school

Neighbourhoods

Roorkee has expanded considerably in recent times. At present, the city's important residential and commercial areas include:

Posh residential areas: Civil-lines Residential area, Jadugar Road, Rajputana West, Bhagirathi Kunj, Solani Puram, Ashok Nagar, Adarsh Nagar, Niti Nagar, Ram Nagar Outer, New Avas Vikas township, Salman Colony, Zohra Bagh, New Nehru Nagar, Ganeshpur, Railway Road, Defence Colony, Akashdeep Enclave, Pradeep Vihar, Colonel's Enclave, Ganga Enclave,RajVihar Colony, Preet Vihar,Purwa deen dayal ,Purvali, Saket colony, Sanjay Gandhi Colony, South Civil Lines, Ashoka Puram, Green Park Colony etc.

Main commercial areas: Civil-lines Market,Vishal Mega Mart, Main Bazar,Tyagi Market, Sultan Tower, Nehar Kinara (Canal View Road), B.T. Ganj, Chaw Mandi, Old Railway Road, Amber Talab, MaktoolPuri, Roorkee Cantt. (Sapper Market I and II, Lalkurti), Ramnagar camp, Delhi Road etc.

Famous village Sunehra, which has its remarkable presence in the struggle for freedom against the British Government.There is a very famous ashram of Asha Ram Bapu Ji in Sunehra.

External links

• Roorkee Official website
• Template:Wikitravel
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)