Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on September 15, 1860, on Muddenahalli of Chikkaballapura in the Kingdom of Mysore. The Indian civil engineer and statesman was the 19th Diwan of Mysore and was honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 1955 for his contributions to the public good. On Tuesday, India, Sri Lanka and Tanzania will celebrate his 160th birth anniversary as Engineer's Day.

In his initial career, Visvesvaraya took a job as an assistant engineer with the Public Works Department of Bombay and later was invited to join the Indian Irrigation Commission. He is known for implementing an intricate system of irrigation in the Deccan Plateau and for designing a system of automatic weir water floodgates that were first installed in 1903 at Khadakvasla Reservoir near Pune. Engineer's Day 2020 Date And Significance: Know The History & All About Mokshagundam Visvesvaray, an Eminent Engineer Whose Birth Anniversary is Celebrated to Honour Engineers.

Following this, Visvesvaraya's system of automatic weir water floodgates were installed at Tigra Dam in Gwalior and Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) Dam in Mysore. He gained celebrity status after designing a flood protection system for the city of Hyderabad. He also played an important role in developing a system to protect the Visakhapatnam port from sea erosion, which was the biggest reservoir in Asia when it was built. Visvesvaraya played an instrumental part in charting out a plan for road construction between Tirumala and Tirupati.

In Visvesvarayawa's honour, Visvesvaraya Technological University in Belagavi, University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in Bangalore Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology in Bangalore, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in Nagpur, College of Engineering in Pune and Viswesvarayya Industrial and Technological Museum in Bangalore have been formed. Also, two metro stations -- Sir M Visveshwaraya Station in Bangalore and Sir Vishweshwaraiah Moti Bagh in Delhi -- have been named. Apart from this, Visvesvarayawas was called the 'Father of Modern Mysore State'.

Among other achievements, Visvesvaraya was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1911 and was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) by the British in 1915. In 1955, he was awarded honorary membership of London Institution of Civil Engineers and later received several honorary degrees including DSc, LLD, DLitt from eight universities in India. He died in Bangalore on April 14, 1962.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 15, 2020 08:10 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).