Lahore is a modern city loaded with a rich and interesting history. It has kept the marks of great men in its folds for centuries. Sir Ganga Ram was one such man who contributed incalculably to Lahore’s development as a modern city and we can say that during his time the Lahore saw a new style of architecture and zenith. Millions of people are familiar with his name because of the Ganga Ram Hospital located in Lahore. The dilemma is that hardly few would know who he was. Sir Ganga Ram dedicated a major part of his life to Lahore as an engineer and a warmhearted charity donor. He supervised the construction of Lahore High Court, Cathedral and constructed the Aitcheson College. He also gave Lahore new water works in addition to many other buildings. For twelve years he was the executive engineer of Lahore, a period which has been called as “Ganga Ram period of architecture”.

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Here, let me take you to a brief history of this great honourable man. Sir Ganga Ram Agrawal was born in 1851 in Mangtanwala, a village of Punjab in Pakistan. His father, Doulat Ram Agrawal was a junior sub inspector at a police station in Mangtanwala. Later, he shifted to Amritsar and became a copy-writer of the court. Here, Ganga Ram passed his matriculation examination from the Government High School and joined the Government College, Lahore in 1869. In 1871, he obtained a scholarship to the Thomason Civil Engineering College at Roorkee. He passed the final lower subordinate examination with the gold medal in 1873. He was appointed Assistant Engineer and called to Delhi to help in the building of the Imperial Assemblage.

In 1873, after a brief service in Punjab PWD he devoted himself to practical farming. He obtained on lease from government 50,000 acres of barren land in Montgomery district, and within three years converted that vast desert into smiling fields, irrigated by water lifted by a hydroelectric plant and running through a thousand miles of irrigation channels, all constructed at his own cost. This was the biggest private enterprise of its kind, unknown and unthought-of in the country before. Sir Ganga Ram earned millions most of which he gave to charity. In the words of Sir Malcolm Hailey, the governor of Punjab, “He won like a hero and gave like a Saint”. He was a great engineer and a great philanthropist.

He designed and built General Post Office, Lahore Museum, Aitchison College, Mayo School of Arts (now NCA), Ganga Ram Hospital, Lady Mclagan Girls High School, the chemistry department of the Government College University, the Albert Victor wing of Mayo Hospital, the Hailey College of Commerce, Ravi Road House for the Disabled, the Ganga Ram Trust Building on The Mall and Lady Maynard Industrial School. He also constructed Model Town, once the best locality of Lahore, the powerhouse at Renala Khurd as well as the railway track between Pathankot and Amritsar. He built Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lady Mclagan School and Renala Khurd Power House with his own money.

He is known as a promising agriculturist in history. He purchased thousands of acres of barren land in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) on lease and by using engineering skills and modern irrigation methods, turned the waterless lands into fertile fields.

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