Roorkee

Roorkee is a wonderful town in the district of Haridwar in Uttaranchal. It is located on the National Highway-58 on the banks of the Ganga at a distance of 30km from Haridwar. Roorkee derives its name from Ruri, the wife of tribal chieftain of the Rajputs. In 1868, the municipality of Roorkee was formed after it became home to Bengal Sappers and Miners in 1853. Today, it is home to a large army base and is the headquarters for Bengal Engineering Group and Centre.

The development of Roorkee began with the establishment of Roorkee Engineering College which was originally meant for training classes for the locals in civil engineering works for the Upper Ganga Canal. It was only in 1847 that the college was formally constituted. It was renamed 'Thomason College of Civil Engineering' after Sir James Thomason, Lt. Governor of North Western Province (1843-53) who was behind the constitution of the college.The college was later upgraded to be known as the Unversity of Roorkee and in 2001, it was made one of the IITs, IIT Roorkee. Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari is located in Roorkee. A 15 day long festival is held at the dargah known as Sakar Sabir Pak. Other than the IIT, the other important educational institutes are College of Engineering Roorkee (COER), Roorkee Institute of Technology (RIT), Bishambhar Sahai Law Institute, Roorkee College of Pharmacy and Roorkee Institute of Management Sciences (RIMS). There are various important schools as well like St. Gabriel's Academy, St. Ann's Sr. Sec. School, Army School, Knox Memorial School and St. Joseph School. The presence of world class institutions, attract hundreds of students not only from all over India but all over the world to study in Roorkee.