At a time when the government’s focus seems to be on cleaning the Ganga, one niche laboratory in IIT-Benaras Hindu University (BHU) established to study various characteristics of this holy river over two decades ago now stands locked for want of teachers, students and funds.
A total of 54 M.Tech and three Ph.D.s in 26 years is what the Ganga Research Centre — popularly called Ganga Laboratory — produced between 1985 and 2011 before it was shut down as the professor who established it retired. Almost all the work done in the research centre revolves around saving the Ganga from further decline.
“It pains me when I see the lab which I established by spending the money given for my research projects lying unused for three years now. I have approached all top authorities urging them to revive the lab,” Professor U.K. Choudhary told The Hindu .
Prof. Choudhary, who taught at IIT-BHU’s Civil Engineering Department till his retirement in 2011, is the creator of this unique lab. “The money I got from various central and foreign agencies for research on the Ganga was spent on building this lab that has seen students carrying out various project specifically on the management and cleaning of the Ganga,” says the Professor who is one of the few people in India with Ph.D. in River Engineering.
