Sir Proby Thomas Cautley, who had planned and supervised the construction of the Ganges Canal, was born on this day. The Ganges Canal is the canal system that irrigates the Doab region between the Ganga and the Yamuna rivers.
He had arrived from England and joined the Bengal Presidency artillery in Calcutta. He supervised the construction of the Eastern Yamuna Canal and also worked on fossils. The Ganges Canal was sanctioned in 1841 and inaugurated in 1854. Cautley built his own bricks and faced many challenges. Fully constructed, the main channel was 560km-long. The canal system irrigated around 5,000 villages.
Cautley played a major role in establishing the engineering college that is now known as IIT Roorkee.
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