IMPORTANCE OF CIVIL ENGINEERING IN INDIAN PUBLIC LIFE

INTRODUCTION
It is said that best creator next to god is a civil engineer .While gods plan is still a mystery our civil engineers have pre defined objectives and goals .The idea of designing and creating tangible assets has been at the core of every great civilization. From city planning of Harrapans to Colosseum of Rome; from great pyramid of Egypt to the tallest Bruj Khalifa; all this has been the product of human ingenuity and the will to conquer the forces of nature. We have expressed over the time our ability to rise above the limits of our environment and in this quest civil engineering has been our enduring companion. Most of our daily comforts of living come from the marvels of civil engineering. Civil engineering is broadest of engineering domains whose main aim is creation of worlds infrastructure.

HOUSING
Food, water and shelter-all these are essential condition for human living, the last being in the domain of civil engineering. The dream of every man is to have a home which he can call it as home. From simple bamboo huts to reinforced concrete structure, a man puts life time of his effort to own a house. Now a civil engineer puts this dream into reality. The drawings of architecture are made possible only with design and analysis of civil engineering. Most of us know about certain fundamental of aspects of building construction such as beam column and staircase etc. An engineer takes great care and precaution while constructing a building. The foundation is the soul of a building, if it becomes the stability of structure is threatened. The material used are constitute durability and strength of our building. While we sleep quietly inside our home, it is only on the guarantee of a civil engineer. We face housing shortage in our country. By 2030, 900 million people will be added to Indian cities due ongoing rapid pace of urbanization and rural-urban migration1. While there may be abundance of local and traditional ways of constructing houses in rural areas, we need prior planning and foresight in urban areas. Here most of the dwelling units will be required in low income group categories. The shortage is estimated to be around 19 million in 2013 itself. Apart from government initiative and administrative clearance we need low cost and sustainable housing methods. The role of civil engineer will be highly valued in solving housing shortages by developing alternate technologies

For example recently researchers from IIT Madras have developed a unique method where one can construct a two-bedroom house of 800 square feet for a cost of just Rs 10 lakh. The researchers from the civil engineering department have been working on the project for over a decade and have constructed a two-storey building to showcase the technology they developed to build rapid, cost-effective mass housing using glass fiber reinforced gypsum (GFRG) panels.2The inventions in the field of low cost technologies and material have brought the overall cost of houses within the reach of economically weaker sections. The use of pre fabricated components is a new technology which needs to be promoted here. In rural areas, locally available low cost materials are being used. The local panchayats needs to be sensitized about prevalence of such techniques. Indira Awaas Yojna which is social welfare programme for rural poor can definitely incorporate such advancements which reduce the cost of housing. The aim of Indian Government is to replace all kachha houses with pakka ones by 2017. A mud house with a thatched roof needs continuous maintenance, whereas a brick and cement house is far sturdier, and has a longer life span. And villagers are as interested in the longevity of their homes as their urban counterparts. Earthquakes are unfortunate realities of natural world. In such scenario it is necessary for engineer to develop technologies for earthquake resistant methods. A lot of work has been done in this field and we can now construct such structures which can withstand moderate to high magnitudes of earthquakes. Basic knowledge regarding seismic zones and safe construction practices are being disseminated to public so that they can avoid structural flaws in their buildings.

TRANSPORTATION
Roads are like arteries of a nation, if you block vital ones the survival becomes difficult. In spite of being fully aware of this necessity, our successive governments have not paid adequate attention to this aspect of infrastructure development. The First World War period and that immediately following it found a rapid growth in motor transport. So need for better roads became a necessity. For that, the Government of India appointed a committee called Road development Committee with Mr.M.R. Jayakar as the chairman. This committee came to be known as Jayakar committee. The recommendations of this committee stated that road building should be given national importance, a semitechnical body should be formed, additional tax should be levied on petrol and a research organization should be formed to carry out research and development work. But subsequently recommendation of this committee was relegated to background. The

conditions of the road as it exist today is completely out of sync with idea of India being a developed nation by 2020.Due to its size India has third largest road network but half of them are unsurfaced roads. The world has made rapid development in road technology but still our roads are in deplorable condition. The design and analysis aspect of road lies with civil engineer but land acquisition and construction are activities of government. Indian roads are notorious for death toll due to road accidents each year. Most of them are caused to unsafe and rash driving but we cannot absolve an engineer for his design flaws. Today, most of our national highway lack service lanes. When a vehicle breaks down it occupies almost half of the width of road. This problem has caused many deaths, especially during night. In civil engineering there are adequate provisions for meeting such exigencies. During recent flash floods in Uttrakhand we were handicapped due to poor condition of roads after the deluge. The full knowledge of design aspect can save hundreds of lives. Our most frustrating experience during driving is getting caught in traffic jam. One of the reasons responsible for this is faulty operation of green and red lights. Our valuable time is lost because of lack of proper understanding amongst traffic regulator which forms an important part of civil engineering. Road width and approach ways should be adequately designed to accommodate increasing traffic. Such basic understanding can really make our life hassle free.

Indian railways is one of the worlds largest networks, carrying millions of passengers daily to their destination. It is worlds 9th largest utility employer. Our ordinary citizens can benefit hugely if our railways is modernized. Laying of new tracks, doubling and gauge conversions, and electrification. Well trained civil engineers can totally transform the state of Indian railways. One of the pioneers of our time is Mr. E Sreedharan. He is otherwise popularly known as Metro Man. He has shown us model of excellent public transport system. It is just a matter of time, when we will have such models in every state if the will of our political is there. We also want high speed trains like those of Japan and France. This huge potential of growth and developed can be actualized only when we produce high quality civil engineers.

DRAINAGE AND SANITATION

India ranks very low when it comes to drainage and sanitation issues. During rain, our roads are flooded with storm water which ultimately gets wasted. Even newly constructed get flooded due to faulty drainage system. Moreover this rain water not harvested and allowed to go in drain. No forethought has been given to design and construction of storm and drain water sewer. We become laughing stock of visiting foreign dignitaries due to such pathetic management of drainage facilities. Engineering hydrology can provide us guidance while designing rain water storms. We need to calculate the discharge according to maximum intensity of rainfall during design period and accordingly determine size of drain. Most of problem is related to overflow or backflow of drains. Overflow of drains show that size of drain is inadequate for given discharge and backflow shows that there is inverse gradient. Constructing canal for irrigation purposes require same fundamental principles. Millions of farmer can benefitted from water works which function efficiently. There can be no two opinions about the need for conserving water. The draught prone parts of central India would be the biggest beneficiary of feats of civil engineering. One of the standards of modernity is the degree of sanitation prevalent in the nation. Sanitation is needed not only for personal hygiene but also for combating various diseases. In India more than half of people still defecate in open; they have mobile phones in their hand but no toilet in their homes-paradox of development. Recent report suggests that poor sanitation conditions have contributed to stunting and wasting of our children even more than sub-Saharan Africa. The presence of sewers and garbage disposal system lies at the foundation of any modern civilization. Even the Indus valley civilization had well maintained drainage system. Public health engineers can devise procedures for garbage collection and waste disposal. It is one of the pertinent problems faced by big cities. The methods available are landfill, vermicompost, combustion, incineration, recycling, and biological processing but still we witness huge collection of garbage near public spaces within the city itself. It is distressing to see thousands of people living by overflowing drains and sewers which would not had existed in the first place if basic Civil engineering principles had been used effectively. The neat and clean environment and surrounding improves quality of life which has been conspicuously missing form lives of millions of Indians.

CONCLUSION
We have seen, in brief, how civil engineering is related to fundamental aspects of our living. This earth which we call home has been created by forces of nature but humans have used knowledge of civil engineering to shape their destiny. Only when we live well, we can do well; only when we travel safe, we can arrive. Meaningful creation with safety and reliability has been the objectives of civil engineering. It has learnt many lessons from its past failure though at great costs. The great men who developed and systemized this knowledge deserve our appreciation and recognition. Our homes, roads, bridges, dams .bear a mark of testimony that we have come a long way in our partnership with civil engineering.

REFERENCES 1. www.kpmg.com/IN/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/Urbanhousing-shortage-in-India.pdfv 2. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-08/news/39833514_1_iit-mpanels-carpet-area