This is the
story of a famous and exceptional social worker a town planner architect and
civil engineer of the subcontinent Sir Ganga Ram. He is also famously known as
the architect and founder of Lahore city. He spent his lifetime contributing to
charity projects in the field of education health welfare of the common man of Punjab.
He builds the famous Ganga ram hospital in Lahore.
The first
commerce college of Lahore known as the hale college of commerce, the Sarah Ganga
ram trust-building located on the mall road, the lady mclegan high school for
girls and various other shelters for women and old and the other helpless
people of the area.
Sir Ganga ram
was born on the 13th of April 1851 in a small town near Nankana sahib. His
father doloth ram was a junior sub-inspector in a local police station. The
entire family moved to Amritsar in his childhood. This is where he studied at a
local government school. He was an exceptionally intelligent student who took
scholarships and succeeded in taking admission to the government college Lahore
in 1869.
Two years later
he got another scholarship which got him into the Thompson civil engineering
college porky. He received a gold medal in the year 1873. Sir Ganga ram was
hired as an assistant engineer to help build the imperial assembly in Delhi, inspired
by his performance, he was sent to Bradford England for two years to study
supply and drainage system.
In the year
1900 he became the superintendent of the imperial court of King Edward. The Ganga ram
became the executive engineer of Lahore city from 1891 to 1903. This period is
famously known as the sir Ganga ram period of architecture. He was the first
one to plan the water supply and drainage system of Lahore city.
He also
designed the famous buildings that represent Lahore today including the Lahore
museum. the Muir school of arts currently known as the national college of arts,
the HSN college, the Lahore high court, the general post office, the Lahore
cathedral, the chemistry department of the government college, the Albert
victor wing of meo hospital, and the master planning of model town Lahore in
1923.
He established
the sir Ganga ram trust to manage his charity work apart from Lahore. He has
also performed important construction work in many other cities of Punjab. he
was granted 500 acres of land by the British on his retirement in Lyallpur currently
known as Faisalabad, inhabited a village which he designed himself and called
it gangapur.
It was the first village in the subcontinent to introduce the latest agricultural
equipment. he also introduced a horse train and track which helped in carrying
heavy machinery from his gangapur agricultural project, this track connected Gangapur
to bachyana to the point where it touched the Lahore jaramala railway line to
transport the machinery all the way back to his village.
Later on, this
horse train was used for traveling from one place to another by the local
residents. The government of Pakistan declared it a cultural heritage another
major achievement of sir Ganga ram. The construction of the hydropower station in
1925.
In 1903 sir Ganga
ram was awarded the title of ray bahadur in the order of the Indian empire
for his services to the government and his charity work. In 1911 he was awarded
the Royal Victorian order and in the year 1922 king George v granted him the
title of Sir Ganga Ram. He passed away on 10th July 1927 at the age of 76 in London.
His ashes were brought back to India.
Some of the
ashes were shed in river Ganga by his son rai bahadur Sava gram and some ashes
were buried in the Samadhi near texali gate Lahore. The welfare services of sir
Ganga Ram is not only limited to Pakistan but also to India. In 1954 the Indian Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated Sir Ganga ram hospital in Delhi in memory
of his lifetime of social work.
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