1. THE INSTITUTE
The Institute has an illustrious history and a glorious past. It has its foundations in the
Roorkee College, which was founded in 1847, to train technical manpower for making the Ganga
canal. It was the first Engineering College in the entire British Empire at that time. This was later
renamed as Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1854. The College laid the foundation of
modern engineering education and the use of Civil Engineering practices in the infrastructure
development of the country. Major civil works in the country like dams, canals, roads, highways,
railways, bridges, etc., are the outcome of the engineering education imparted in this College.
In 1946, when teaching in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering was started, the college
was renamed as Thomason College of Engineering. In 1949, it was elevated to the status of the
first engineering University of Independent India. Ever since its inception, the University was
renamed as IIT by the Government of India through as Act of Parliament and is now known as
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. The most conspicuous feature of the institute is that the
academic directions are all the time conceived to be relevant to the Indian society and its needs
and prepare the students to meet global challenges.
The Institute has modern education and training programmes in engineering, applied
sciences and social sciences including management. The Institute has excellent theatres,
laboratories, libraries, analytical instruments and computational and networking facilities. The
Institute is well endowed with modern auditoria, conferencing, multi-media and video facilities
and well maintained guest houses.
The Institute has two campuses. The main campus is at Roorkee in Uttarakhand and the
other one is 50 km away at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The campus at Roorkee is spread over
356 acres of landscaped lush greenery. Nestled within this are several heritage buildings, modern
academic departments, twelve hostels, messes, hospital, school, banks, community centers,
indoor and outdoor sports facilities, which include three sports stadiums, a modern swimming
pool, yoga bhawan, dairy, students club, and several activity centers and other buildings. The
Department of Paper Technology is located in a 25 acre campus at Saharanpur. A 10 acre campus
is being developed as extension centre at Greater Noida.
Co-curricular and extra-curricular activities are carried out under the auspices of the
Students Club, Hobbies Club, Cultural Society, The Himalayan Explorers’ Club, educational
Cinema Club, Sports Association, National Cadet Corps (NCC), and various departmental
students’ societies.
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