New Delhi [India] September 15 (HornbillTV): Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Thursday greeted all hardworking engineers on Engineer’s Day and saluted them for their innovations and paramount role in the development of the country.

Engineer’s Day is observed to mark the birth anniversary of engineer statesman Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, a diwan of the erstwhile Mysore kingdom, who is credited with pioneering engineering works.

“Engineers Day, my greetings to all our hardworking engineers and salute them for their innovations and paramount role in the development of our nation. I pay homage to the most outstanding Engineer of all times, Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya Ji on his birth anniversary,” Shah tweeted.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also greeted engineers on the occasion, and remembered the pathbreaking contribution of Sir M. Visvesvaraya, saying India is blessed to have a skilled and talented pool of engineers contributing to nation-building.

Every year India celebrates National Engineer’s day on September 15 to recognise and honour the achievements of the great engineer Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. Along with India, Visvesvaraya’s great works are also celebrated in Sri Lanka and Tanzania on September 15 as Engineer’s day.

Born on September 15, 1861, in the Muddenahalli village of Karnataka, Visvesvaraya completed his school education in his hometown and later on went to study Bachelor of Arts (BA) at the University of Madras. He then switched to a different career path and pursued a diploma in civil engineering at the College of Science in Pune.

Popularly known as Sir MV, he undertook several complex projects and delivered remarkable infrastructural results during his engineering career. He patented and installed an irrigation system with water floodgates at the Khadakvasla reservoir near Pune to raise the food supply level and storage to the highest levels known as the ‘block system’ in 1903.

The irrigation system was later installed at Gwalior’s Tigra Dam and Mysuru’s Krishnaraja Sagara (KRS) dam, the latter of which created one of the largest reservoirs in Asia at the time.