From: Dr. A. K. Pant (anantfee@rurkiu.ernet.in)
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2001 9:17 PM
Subject: Papola and Dr. Sharma,

N.S.Bhatnagar had with you with reference to the People's Seminar on Harnessing of Uttaranchal's Resources for the Development of the
Himalayans. I have great pleasure in sending you this invitation on behalf of Jan Chetna Forum by email due to limitation of time. We hope to send more details of the seminar by post. Jan Chetna Forum, a voluntary apolitical organisation has decided to organise a seminar of experts and activists with the people even from the remotest areas as a two way information exchange to solve the "Real Life Problems".

From: p.k. swamee (swamifce@rurkiu.ernet.in)
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2001 9:54 PM
Subject: The first train in India

Dear Prof. Prakash:
I got an interesting information through internet search. I thought I should share this information with you.The information is as follows:

"Q: When did the first train run in India?

"The customary answer to this question is 3:35 p.m. on April 16th, 1853, when a train with 14 railway carriages and 400 guests left Bombay's Bori Bunder for Thane, with a 2-gun salute. It was hauled by three locomotives: Sindh, Sultan and Sagar. The journey took an hour and fifteen minutes.
"That, however, was just the first passenger service in India. In fact a steam locomotive, Thomason, had been used for hauling construction material in Roorkee for the Solani aqueduct in 1851 (it began working there on 22nd December 1851, to be exact). The locomotive had been assembled on the spot from parts transported from Calcutta. It did not last long, as the India's first steam locomotive had a spectacular death with a boiler explosion, reportedly to the delight of the construction workers who had viewed it more as a hindrance than help. Hughes' book states that this was a six-wheeled tank engine, probably a 2-2-2WT built be E.B. Wilson."

Thus, Roorkee has distinction of starting railway revolution in
Asia.
For further details you may visit
http://www.geocities.com/irfca_faq/faq-hist.html
With best wishes.
Sincerely,
P.K. Swamee

From: Bhupinder Singh

To : Respected Dr. Shamsher Prakash Jee,

As you are one of the seniormost engineers from Roorkee University, I am submitting for your considerations few aspects of the recently adopted policy towards raising the fees of undergraduate students who form the backbone of our student force. Their selection and later on training places them on a pedestal and most of them do well in the profession.

It is understandable that just like most of the technical institutes, the university had no alternative except raising the tuition fees for raising funds, although the performance of most of the undergraduate students has been due to the fact that they hail from middle class families and Roorkee University has been a very attractive seat of learning in lieu of the low expenses in terms of tuition fees and boarding cum lodging. Most of the intelligent and hardworking students come as commoners and become VIPs because of this institute's policy of providing scholarships to most of the entrants.

But as the cost of education at this campus has increased therefore such intelligent and hard working students from lower middle class communities who cannot muster sufficient funds shall not be able to enter the protals of Roorkee University. For the last 150 years such students have given fame to the university. But now as per the the new expense pattern of our university, we shall not have brilliant scholars like Ram Dass Tandon (1895), Gurbaksh Singh Preetlari, Karnail Singh, A.N.Khosla, Ghananand Pande and Chandmal.

What can we do now when the university administration has already raised the tuition fees?

Let us enhance the value of scholarships matching with the expenses of the students of the campus or find out some other ways to bring in the hard working and intelligent students from lower middle class communities who have been the back bone of excellence at this university.

Or,

Let us float an educational bank of our own for supporting the students by issuing student loans.

Something needs to be done immediately, so that our benches are not devoid of this breed of students who otherwise shall not reach our university.

Bhupinder Singh

(Professor Emeritus, Mechanical Engineering, University of Roorkee)

From: Sarjit Grewal (Jeti36@aol.com )
Sent : April 12, 2001
Subject: Re: April-List

Thanks for your response.

I graduated from the University in 1959 (BE. Mech.). After graduating I married a girl from Punjab and went home to Uganda. I briefly worked for a Sugar mill in Uganda. In 1960 I went to UK and completed postgraduate studies in Production Engineering at The University Of Strathclyde, Glasgow. In 1962
I returned to Uganda and joined a Chemical firm where I worked till mid 1969 and immigrated to Canada.

In Canada I worked for the Nuclear Power Industry till 1993 when I took an early retirement. I was a Commissioning Manager at my retirement.

I am thoroughly enjoying my retirement. My wife and I are avid hikers and we travel all over the world for hiking. This also keep me healthy inspite of my
kidney transplant 19 years ago.

We have three kids. Our older daughter is an Orthodontist, she is married and has own practice in our town. Our second daughter is in Virginia where she works as a speech and language therapist. Our son who is the youngest is in South Carolina practising as an Ophthalmologist at the University of S. Carolina.

My postal address is: 3 Anstead Cres., Ajax, Ontario, Canada, L1S 3X4 Tel. 905-683-6368 Fax. 905-427-4768

Sarjit Grewal

From:AMIT

Sent : March 12, 2001

Subject: RE: Holi Function

It was nice meeting the Alumni members at the Holi function. Here is an article on University of Roorkee published recently in an Indian newspaper. Thanks. Regards.

Amit (athakkar@nortelnetworks.com)

154-yr-old Roorkee Engg College to finally be an IIT

MEGHA BAHREE

NEW DELHI, MARCH 11: One hundred and fifty-four years. That's how long it has taken Roorkee engineering college to be made in to an IIT. After at
least three proposals over the decades to raise the college to IIT level, the proposal was finally cleared by the Cabinet last Monday and from 2002,
admission to Roorkee will be possible through the combined entrance test for other IITs.

Set up in 1847, it is the oldest engineering college in Asia if not the world, says Prof Ashok Chandra, Special Secretary Technical Education, adding: ``At that time there were no formal degrees or colleges of engineering even in Europe.''

The college has a long and interesting history. It all began when a military engineer named Cautley built a canal at Haridwar and to maintain this, many
more engineers were required. Also, plans for roads, navigation of canals and irrigation for the entire country were in the offing. Hence, there was a need for civil engineers and the then Lt Governor, Thomason, recommended the setting up of an engineering college for this purpose.

Initially known as the Thomason College of Engineering, it offered a two-year programme for civil engineering, a one-year programme for overseers and  another one-year programme for sub-overseers. The last one was for Indians only while the others were open to both Indians and Europeans.

In 1864, the college was granted affiliation to Calcutta University but shifted affiliation to Allahabad University in 1889. However, it was pretty much autonomous throughout, says Prof Chandra. At the time of Independence, the government decided to turn the college into a university. So from January 1, 1948, a hundred years after it was founded, the Roorkee College of Engineering started functioning as a university.

According to Chandra, the university at one time had the biggest department of civil engineering in the world, with more than 80 professors. ``In fact, it built up other centres on its campus, like the National Institute of Hydrology, Earthquake Engineering Research Centre amongst others and has
been involved in worldwide consultancy for large dams,'' he adds.

Earlier in 1945, the Government had set up the Sarkar committee to ascertain if more institutions were needed since after World War II the demand for
technically trained people had increased. The committee recommended setting up five institutes for technology, and the now-famous IITs were born.

Roorkee University was supposed to be the first IIT but there was a hitch. Then chief minister of the state Gobind Ballabh Pant was not willing to part
with this jewel in the crown of Uttar Pradesh as it would have resulted in its handing over to the Centre. And so that plan came to naught.

In the mid-1980s, there was another effort to raise the university to IIT level as it was feared that it wouldn't be able to keep pace with changing
technology because of its limited resources. However, even though a survey by the Department of Science and Technology rated it among the best, the
conversion proposal still did not work out.

In 1999, the idea was revived yet again. By that time, the decision to create Uttaranchal had already been taken, and since the new state did not have enough funds for the University anyway, the idea was finally approved. However, there are still few months to go before the formal christening of the university since the IIT Act needs to be amended, Chandra explained.


Improving technical education Apart from the IITs, nearly 60 existing engineering colleges, including 17 Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs), are due to be raised to the level of world-class institutions. This implies an increase in their funds, change in governance, and also to convert them to deemed universities and grant them full academic autonomy.

Moreover, the RECs will be instructed to help develop other colleges in their area. This is part of the Government's 10-year plan to develop 220 engineering colleges across the country and reform and upgrade the entire technical programme, Prof Ashok Chandra said.

Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

From:Satyendra Agarwal  

Sent: March 15, 2001 

From:Jagdish Narain  

On 28 February 2001, the Finance Minister in his Budget Speech to the Parliament, announced that ROORKEE will be elevated to an IIT. It is a matter of great joy and pride to all the well-wishers of Roorkee that this premier institution is being restored to its rightful status after so long !