Roorkee has the distinction of being one of the endpoints of the first train journey in India (along with Piran Kaliyar) on 22 December 1851. Roorkee is well connected by railway networks with major destinations of India. Roorkee has excellent rail network with all important cities of India. Trains to Roorkee run on regular basis.
Roorkee is one of the developing cities of Uttarakhand with many initiatives taken to promote the city at its best in fields of education, research and industrial development. Such is the involvement of the city in educational excellence that it is often called as Shiksha Nagari by eminent people. Roorkee is also famous for having a railway engine pass through the tracks of the town for the first time in the country. It was a locomotive engine which traveled from Roorkee to Piran Kaliyar, almost 10km in 1851.
A civil engineering school got started in the area in 1845, so that it enables the local youth to get trained on different jobs in this genre and help in the work of the Upper Ganges Canal. This was informally the first engineering college which was formally established after the proposal initiated by Sir James Thomason who was the Lt. Governor of the North West Province. However, in 1953 after Sir Thomason died the college was named after him as Thomason College of Civil Engineering which was upgraded to the University of Roorkee and later by an act of parliament was transformed in to one of the branches of Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.
Apart from this Roorkee has been honored several times with modern facilities for the first time among many places across the country. For example it is one of the few towns which had a post office and it also owned the first telegraphic office in the country. It was also the first among several towns to have the benefit of Hydroelectricity. Even the first aqueduct of the country was constructed over Solani River in Roorkee only.
However, Roorkee today, has grown in terms of social, economical and industrial development in a huge way. It is one of the progressive towns of the country and one of the promising cities of Uttarakhand
How to reach Roorkee:
Roorkee is well-connected by roads, rail and air and is easily accessible from most parts of the country. It is 177 km away from India’s capital, New Delhi and 41 Km from Dehradun. Roorkee is easy to reach and an accessible destination that you can visit any time of the year.
By Air:
Roorkee is well connected to other major cities of the country. The nearest airport is in Dehradun at a distance of 41kms.
By Road:
Roorkee is well connected with motorable roads. Roorkee is one of the gateways of Uttarakhand state. Buses and Taxis to Roorkee are easily available from major destinations of Uttarakhand state. Roorkee is connected with NH58 and NH73 passing through the heart of the city. A few prominent cities, which have road connections to Roorkee, are Dehradun (41kms), Rishikesh (50kms), Chandigarh (177kms), Delhi (177kms), Jaipur (451kms), Lucknow (530kms).