Engineers' Day celebrations

LUCKNOW: The engineers of various government departments celebrated the 143rd birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna recipient Er M Visvesaria as the Engineers'' Day on Monday.
During the engineers'' day programme organised by the Public Works Department (PWD) officers club at Nirman Nagar, various cultural programmes marked the celebrations.
The power engineers, under the auspices of the UP Rajya Vidyut Parishad Abhiyanta Sangh, also celebrated the Engineers'' Day.
On the occasion, guest of honour at the programme organised by the PWD, retired engineer-in-chief PWD, Pratap Singh, highlighted the role of engineers in the over-all development of the state and the nation.
Roads, electricity and other infrastructure could be only built by an engineer, he said, as only an engineer was capable of efficient planning, at working out estimates and also while finally implementing a project.
Mentioning that construction of roads had now been taken up as a "core sector" by the government, chief guest, engineer-in-chief PWD, Tribhuvan Ram, lamented that while "integrated planning continued to be only a dream, the public departments were not able to contribute due to lack of funds."
Discussing the contribution of the PWD in the over-all development of the state, Ram said that as against the plan for Lucknow, 76 per cent had already been achieved. While the state had a network of 2 lakh km of roads, around 1.2 lakh km had been constructed by the PWD, he said.