By
Kaushal Kishore
Materials Engineer, Roorkee
The new Solani aqueduct on Ganges canal Roorkee was built with prestressed concrete which allows for longer spans and a simple more robust design compared to old bricks, lime- surkhi mortar masonry arches of the old aqueduct, in which 8.5 crores bricks were used, while iron railing used in the sides of two lanes were imported from England. This is interesting to note that materials bringing those days on ship from England to Indian ports take 6-10 weeks via the Suez canal or 3 to 6 months via the longer Cape of Good Hope. Calculate in it also time taken on road from Indian ports to Roorkee.
After retirement from University of now IIT Roorkee I joined M/S Roffe Construction Chemicals Pvt.Ltdd, Mumbai as it’s Chief Concrete Technologists afterwards I became it’s one of the Director.

AQUEDUCT picture taken on 7/10/2025
For the contractor of above aqueduct I designed M-40 grade of concrete with Roffe superpladticizer. Those interested may read my paper by visiting Google site and log in; Civil engineering portal The Ganges canal by Kaushal Kishore.
I had designed numerous concrete mix design almost all cements of India in this I find Utra Tech cement as one of best cement OPC and PPC both With Ultratech cement I had designed numerous concrete mixes from ordinary strength to M-80 grade concrete, self compacting concrete, shot crete concrete, fibre reinforced concrete, fly ash concrete and more There is life after retirement and after retirement I worked for 30 year’s which includes in free time working in home research and testing laboratory and numerous construction sites visits almost all India and outside India. At my age of 92 years I still work for 12 hours daily.
I had never worked for money. In spite of doing so gigantic work what to say about car I even do not have 2 wheeler not any of my house not a single inch of land in this world only pension from IIT Roorkee and few clothes
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for load from a column exerts 600kn on dense silt directly beneath the footing.soft clay is located 1m below the footing and a water table at 900mm below the footing. based on section 9.4., the pressure on the soft clay is acceptable.
laterally supported pier foundation support a 1 storey house. 200 mm*210mm concrete piers space 3.0m apart support the principal framing members. the 200mm thick footing supporting the pier are located 900mm below the base of the piers.based on the prescriptive requirements in div.b,9.15., the maximum permitted height of the piers measured from the top of the footing to the under side of principle framing member is
How far the water sump can be constructed from pillar.Is it recomendable to construct 1feat near to pillar for 5floor building.
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is there any body or company who can assess the strength of a 5 year old 10 story building which has developed some symtpoms?. He has to assess and give a detailed report on the condition of the building
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what is a tension reinforced concrete column
Pls send us more details
I’m a mason looking for an engineer to be working with
A solution to shoring up building constructed over concrete drain pipe.
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