| Roorkee got its name from Ruri, wife
of a Rajput tribal chief. This information gets attested from the fact
that Roorkee at one point of time was spelled as Rurki. |
|
| During Akbar’s reign,
Roorkee was the headquarter of Mahal or Pargana. Its position, however,
was reduced with the inception of Skaruda, the estate of Rao Qutb-ud-Din
in Zabita Khan’s time. |
|
| Eighteenth-century saw it
being merged in the estate of Landhaura ruled by Gurjars. It remained
with them till 1813, when their king Raja Ramdaval died. |
|
| It was a small village till
the time work on Ganga Canal was not undertaken. It was the construction
of this canal that started the journey of this small village into a
planned and developed township. |
|
| Col. P.T. Cautley, an
officer in the British Army, was most instrumental in constructing the
canal. According to Dept. of Hydrology the canal, which is still
considered as a marvel of engineering, was built in 1853. However,
water was released in the canal on 8th April 1854. |
|
| Roorkee also holds the
distinction of being the place where a railway engine ran for the first
time in the country. The honour goes to a locomotive engine that ran in
1846 and the model of which can still be seen outside Roorkee station. |
|
| Roorkee is also witness to
the upheavals of freedom movement. There are still such trees around
Roorkee where freedom fighters were hanged in full public glare.
Especially in the village of Sunehra, beside K.L. Polytechnic hostel,
one can still spot such trees. |
|
| One can also witness the
famous government irrigation workshop, in the tunnel of which British
officers, civilians and their families took shelter when the famous
revolt of 1857 broke out. |
|
| It would be worth mentioning
that the famous IIT has its genesis in Roorkee College. Constituted in
1847, it was the only engineering college in the country at that time. |
|
| This institute was later
rechristened as Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1854. 1946 saw
the inclusion of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering in its curriculum
and the change of name to Thomason College of Engineering. |
|
| The institute was elevated
to the status of Independent India’s first engineering university in
1949. And on September 21, 2001 Government of India elevated this
institute to the level of IIT. |
|
| Another significant landmark
of Roorkee is Roorkee Cantonment . One of the oldest cantonments in the
country, it is headquarter of Indian Army’s Bengal Engineering Group
and Centre, also popular as Bengal Sappers. |
|
| Bengal Sappers has its
genesis in Bengal Pioneers which was raised in Kanpur by Capt. Tom Wood
in 1803. Bengal Sappers was founded in 1819. Later both these
organisations were merged and headquartered at Ludhiana. |
|
| 1853 saw the headquarter being shifted to Roorkee where it is currently situated. For more info click: http://www.bsoaroorkee.org/ |