Kanuru Lakshmana Rao (15 July 1902 – 18 May 1986) was an Indian Civil engineer and a Padma Bhushan awardee who served as the Union Minister of Irrigation & Power and Member of Parliament for Vijayawada from 1962 to 1977.

Personal life and education

Rao was born in a Telugu Niyogi brahmin family in Kankipadu,

Krishna district Krishna district is district in the coastal Andhra Region in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with Machilipatnam as its administrative headquarters. It is the coastal district of Andhra Pradesh. Machilipatnam is the most populated city in the di ...

, Andhra Pradesh. His father was a village attorney. He lost his father when he was nine years old. He lost vision in one eye due to injury during childhood days while playing at school. He studied Intermediate (+2) at Presidency College, Madras. He took his B.E. degree in Civil Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy and he was the first student from College of Engineering, Guindy to obtain a master's degree in engineering. Later he took his

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in 1939 from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Honours

In 1963, Rao was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution in the spheres of irrigation and power. He had been president of the

Central Board of Irrigation and Power Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

and of the

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in 1958–59 and 1959–1960. He was vice-president of International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (Asia) in 1957–61 and in 1961–65. He was awarded a doctorate in science by Andhra University in 1960. He was also awarded a doctorate by

Roorkee University Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (abbreviated IIT Roorkee) is a technical university located in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. It is the oldest engineering institution in India, and was founded as the College of Civil Engineering in Bri ...

in engineering in 1968.

Engineering career

He worked as a professor in

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

, Burma. After completing his PhD he worked as assistant professor in the United Kingdom. He wrote a book called ''Structural Engineering and Reinforced Concrete''. After returning to India, he worked as a design engineer for the Madras government. He held the post of director (designs) in Vidyut Commission- New Delhi in 1950. He was promoted as chief engineer in 1954. He wrote autobiography titled ''The Cusecs Candidate''.

Political career

He was elected as a member of parliament from Vijayawada constituency for the first time in 1961. He was elected as member of parliament three times from the Vijayawada constituency. On 20 July 1963, Rao was sworn in as a minister for Irrigation and Electricity in the union government. Under his regime as union minister for water resources, Rao designed many irrigation and hydro-electric projects. Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, the world's longest masonry dam on River Krishna in

Guntur district Guntur district is one of the twenty six districts in the Coastal Andhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The administrative seat of the district is located at Guntur, the largest city of the district in terms of area and with a po ...

of Andhra Pradesh and Nalgonda District of Telangana, also the Srisailam Dam i.e constructed across the Krishna River on the border of Mahabubnagar(presently Jogulamba Gadwal) District, Telangana and Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh near Srisailam temple town and is the 2nd largest capacity working hydroelectric station in the country is to his credit. Rao worked as union minister in Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

's cabinet.

Recognition

In 2006, the Pulichintala project, at Bellamkonda of Guntur district, has been named as K. L. Rao Sagar project.

References

* at

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