Journal of the Association of Engineers, India

K. B. Banerjee

Abstract

Possibility of Tidal Hydro-Electricity in Gangetic Delta.

Some time back, it was announced by the All-India Radio from its Calcutta Centre that the Government of West Bengal was considering the possibility of Generation of electricity from the tidal wave of the Bay of Bengal.

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K. B. Banerjee

Abstract

The Population of the State of West Bengal is increasing in a galloping speed. During the last census period between 1951 and 1961, the population has increased from 2,6302,386 to 3,49,26,279, the increase being 32.7 per cent. As the existing resources of the country is already limited, the problem of procuring food for this ever increasing population is becoming a growing headache.

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K. B. Banerjee

Abstract

In the West Bengal during the second quarter of the present century, heavy damages, to two of the major hydraulic structures of the Damodar Canal System due to movement of soil from beneath their foundation, were experienced.

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K. B. Banerjee

Abstract

The well known proverbs that the City of Rome was not built in a day is not perhaps literally applicable to the City of Calcutta. This city as we find to day was developed so quickly and speedily from a group of tiny villages to the enviable position under the proud designation of "The City of Palaces," that it virtually challenged the efficacy of the said proverb.

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K. B. Banerjee

Abstract

Whatever structure a Civil Engineer may be called upon to design, it must ultimately rest upon soil. May he design a lofty tower, may he construct a massive dam or a gigantic barrage or even a tiny outlet or syphon, unless those are built on reliable foundation, the money employed and the energy spent will be a mere waste. Successful design of foundation will depend not only on its structural arrangements but also on the distribution and/or transmission of the superincumbent load upon the soil to such a harmless degree that the attraction of gravity to the structure is adequately balanced by the soil particles. It is, therefore, legitimate to expect that a Civil Engineer should have atleast a reasonably accurate conception about the physical properties of the soil involved and its bearing capacity. It is all the more true for hydraulic structures, because in such cases, the arrangement of soil particle are further complicated by the presence and action of water either static or dynamic.

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K. B. Banerjee ¹

Affiliations
1 Irrigation and Waterways Department, Government of West Bengal, IN

Abstract

Geography:Past & Present

A glance on the eastern fringe of the city of Calcutta will at once bring into view a vast marshy land which extends over miles and miles in a south-easterly direction. This waterlogged area was the bed of the river Bidyadhari, which was once a powerful tidal creek in the Lower Gangetic Delta.

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K. B. Banerjee ¹

Affiliations
1 Irrigation and Waterways Department, Government of West Bengal, IN

Abstract

If we try to find out our origin in the long long past, we will simply meet with endless darkness where no clear evidence has been left by our forefathers to enable tracing out their footprints. Yet, the ever inquisitive human mind carried on through ages laborious researches and advanced various theories, explaining evolution of human society-none of which has however, been accepted with unequivocal opinion.

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K. B. Banerjee ¹

Affiliations
1 Designs Division, Irrigation & Waterways Directorate, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

The name of the article will probably suggest no idea about the subject matter dealt with to the minds of those who are not accustomed to the river protective works. These types of works seldom fall to the lot of Engineers other than those who are engaged in irrigation. Works of an Irrigation Engineer are broadly classified under the following sub-heads:-

(i) Irrigation, (2) Embankment, (3) Navigation, and (4) Drainage. "Closure of breach" comes under the sub-head "Embankment".

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K. B. Banerjee ¹

Affiliations
1 Irrigation & Waterways Dept., Bengal, IN

Abstract

The popular belief that Bengal being a land of rivers and streams and well recipient of rainfall requires no Irrigation, is no longer holding good. It has been found from experience that, though the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, the two mightiest, snow-fed perennial rivers of India, with their innumerable branches and tributaries flow through this province, though the rainfall, seasonal rivers like the Subarnarekha. Damodar, Ajoy, Mayurakshi, etc., with their magnificient discharges, very rich in manural properties, traverse through this province and though the average normal rainfall of 73.5 inches of the province should guarantee all sorts of crops which the local soils permit, it is not in rare occasions that we hear of failure of crops either in one or in another parts of the province due to either drought and deficiency of water or excessive rainfall or floods. The soil of Bengal is gradually loosing its productive efficiency due to the laws of diminishing return, while the Bengal rivers which are so rich in manural properties are not being utilised in fall to replenish the soil properties Agriculture of the province therefore is suffering for want of proper utilisation of the natural resources. Likewise, the industrial development of the province is badly suffering for want of cheap motive power. Coal resources of Bengal which is already exhausting is concentrated at Raneegunge area only and the cost of carriage to remote parts of the province has always been a discouraging factor to the industrialists. The possibilities of other sources of power such as water, wind etc. yet remains to be explored. The steep gorges of the rivers Damodar, Mayurakshi, Teesta, Dharla, Karnafully and the like appear to offer promising results for hydro-electric power. It therefore appears that while nature has showered her bounties in the province, the people have failed to profit adequately by them. The contrast between the bounties of nature and the poverty of man is very striking in Bengal and hence it is rightly said, that Bengalees are poor people in a rich country.

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K. B. Banerjee

Abstract

Unemployment amongst engineers has already reached an alarming size. The figures of such unemployment in West Bengal alone, as recently published in newspapers do not perhaps represent the actual state of affairs. This figure was probably based on information collected from Employment Exchange, where many of the unemployed engineers have not registered their names. From our day to day experience, we feel the number of unemployed engineers will be many times more.

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