#history
#memory
P K Thresia – India’s First Woman Chief Engineer.
P K Thresia and Elizabeth George ( later Koshy), who graduated from the College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras in 1943, are the first lady civil engineering graduates in the country.
(The writer chanced upon an article in the Times of India, where Shakuntala A Bhagat, who graduated in 1953 from the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute, Bombay, is credited as the first Woman Civil Engineer in India).
Two brilliant and courageous Malayalee girls, Thresia from the native State of Kochi, and Leela Elizabeth George from Thiruvithamkoor, encouraged by their parents,aspired to be engineers, a rarity those days. However the only engineering college in Kerala , College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram in Travancore , was not prepared to admit girls.
It was a fellow Malayalee, Dr K C Chacko, who was the Principal of the College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras, came to their rescue.
Dr Chacko, the first Malayalee to acquire a doctorate in Engineering, had studied in England, and had returned to India with progressive ideas.
The engineering faculty was aghast at the very idea, but the entry of another ambitious girl Lalitha, swung the fortunes in their way.
Lalitha, the daughter of a professor in the Guindy Engineering College, had been married and widowed at the young age of 18. She wanted to escape the clutches of orthodoxy, and her father supported her.
His perseverance gave Prof. Chacko the courage to go ahead, and admit the three girls.
In 1939, P K Thresia and Leela Elizabeth George were admitted for the Civil Engineering degree course. Lalitha opted for the Electrical Engineering course.
The eruption of the World War II proved fortuitous for the students. There was a dire shortage of qualified engineers. Hence their courses were shortened, and the three girls too recieved their engineering degree certificates in 1943, one year ahead of schedule.
The fact that the first woman civil engineer in the world, Nora Stanton Bletch graduated from Cornell University only in 1905, and the second, Olive Dennis only in 1920, places the achievement of the three women in perspective.
P K Thresia was immediately appointed in the Public Works Commission of Kochi as Section Officer. Leela Elizabeth George ( Koshy) joined the Public Works Department of Travancore.
P K Thresia was born in the State of Kochi, at Edathuruthy near Kattoor, as the second of the six children of Kakkappan Panikulam and Kunjalachy.
Thresia was intelligent, focused, and determined to make a name in the world dominated by men. She never married and focused all her abilities in the pursuit of her profession.
Soon after joining the Kochi State Service, she was promoted as Assistant Construction Engineer, and put in charge of the construction of the TB sanatorium at Mulankunnathukavu, near Thrissur. Her touch proved to be golden, and Mulankunnathukavu is now the headquarters of the Government Medical College and the Medical University of Kerala.
Her hard work earned her a promotion and in 1956, she was posted as the Executive Engineer at Ernakulam, in the Thiru-Kochi State, formed after the merger of Thiruvithamkoor and Kochi States.
Consequent to the merger of Thiru-Kochi and Malabar to form the Kerala State, the two engineering cadres were merged to form the Kerala State Public Works Department.
In 1966, P K Thresia was promoted and posted as Superintendent Engineer, Buildings and Roads Circle, at Calicut.
In 1971, Thresia created more history by becoming the first woman Chief Engineer of a State in the whole of India. She was appointed Chief Engineer, Kerala State PWD at the young age of 47.
She served as Chief Engineer for eight years, and the innumerable roads, buildings and bridges constructed across the length and breadth of the State, bear testimony to her professional skills, leadership and administrative abilities. As many as seven district headquarters buildings were constructed under her supervision and direction during this period, considered as the golden years of Kerala PWD.
P K Thresia retired in 1979, but succumbed to cancer on 18 November 1981.
Elizabeth George Koshy was an equally brilliant and dedicated engineer, but the formation of the Kerala State resulted in an unfortunate setback to her career prospects.
Thresia originally belonged to the much smaller Kochi State, in comparison to the large State of Travancore, and hence was able to secure promotions faster.
Consequent to the merger of the engineering services of the two kingdoms, Thresia was designated as senior to Elizabeth,
in the common service seniority list. Elizabeth had to be content with serving as Deputy Chief Engineer.
Lalitha joined AEI ( Associated Electrical Industries), a British firm specialised in the design and construction of Transformers, Electrical Sub Stations etc. She was involved in several prestigious projects like the construction of the Bhakra Nangal Dam.
Photo. (L- R) Thresia, Leela George, Lalitha.
– Joy Kallivayalil.
p.s:
I joined Kerala PWD in 1981, as Assistant Engineer, and the portrait erected in memory of Thresia, in the office of the Chief Engineer, Thiruvananthapuram , had been an inspiration throughout my thirty years of service in the government.
I am also proud of the several family relations shared between the Panikulam and Kallivayalil families.
Subramonian Potty V adds:
College of Engineering,Trivandrum was established in 1939 at the present Post Master General office Campus even before we got Independence.So many Government Buildings around has been part of Old Engineering College.This was shifted to a new Campus in Kulathoor in 1962.Myself along with a lot of friends are Alumni to the Kulathoor Campus.A very good write up Joy and a nice toast to our Predecessors.
The original building where the College of Engineering was started now houses the office of the Post Master General of Kerala. The college campus across the road has the PWD Buildings Division, Engineering Museum etc.
