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CAUTLEY

By
Kaushal Kishore
Materials Engineer, Roorkee

Sir Proby Thames Cautley KCB ( 3 January 1802-25 January 1871 ) was the English engineer who conceived and supervised the Ganges canal during the East India Company’s rule in India. Known for his perseverance and meticulous planning, he led the massive project from 1842 to 1854, creating a canal that was the largest irrigation canal in the world at its completion. Cautley also established the Thomason college of Engineering in Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee) to train engineers for the canal project.



Cautley spent six months personally -surveying the area to prove the feasibility of his project overcoming financial obligations from the East India Company. He faced numerous obstacles, including a lack of materials and skilled labor. He build the now famous aqueduct over the Solani river in Roorkee. To aid construction, Cautley introduced India’s first steam engine (now can be seen infront of Roorkee railway station) to transport materials to the aqueduct site. He also used an innovative, durable mortar mix.

The Ganges canal was a remarkable feat of engineering, that provided irrigation to Doab region of Uttar pradesh, transforming the local economy. Cautley efforts are remembered through the canal itself and the Asia’s first engineering college he founded at Roorkee.

The canal streeteches some 350 miles between it’s headworks at Haridwar and after bifurcation near Aligarh, it’s confluences with the Ganges river main stream in Kanpur and the Yamuna river in Etawah. At the time of completion. It has the greatest discharge of any irrigation in the world.

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Kanwarjot Singh

Kanwarjot Singh is the founder of Civil Engineering Portal, a leading civil engineering website which has been awarded as the best online publication by CIDC. He did his BE civil from Thapar University, Patiala and has been working on this website with his team of Civil Engineers.

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