Roorkee (Rūṛkī; Hindi: [ɾuːɽkiː]) is a city and a municipal corporation in the Haridwar district of the state of Uttarakhand, India.

[3] Roorkee is listed in the Ain-i-Akbari as a pargana under the sarkar of Saharanpur, producing a revenue of 12,234 dams for the imperial treasury and supplying a force of 1200 infantry and 125 cavalry.

[6] Digging work on the Upper Ganges Canal formally began in April 1842, under the aegis of Proby Cautley, a British officer.

The canal, which was formally opened on 8 April 1854, provided irrigation waters for more than 767,000 acres (310,000 ha) in 5,000 villages.

This was followed by the establishment of Civil Engineering School; classes started in 1845[6] to train local youth to assist in the civil-engineering work of the Upper Ganges Canal.

[10] On 25 November 1847, the college was formally constituted through a proposal by the Sir James Thomason, Lt.

[12] In 1851, the Solani Aqueduct Railway was built by Proby Cautley in Roorkee to transport construction materials for Ganges canal.

In 1901, when the city had a population of 17,197, it was made the headquarters of the Roorkee Tehsil, in Saharanpur district of the United Province of the British Raj; the tehsil included in it 426 villages (of the parganas of Jwalapur, Manglaur and Bhagwanpur) and six towns, the most important among them being Haridwar and Manglaur.

Roorkee is 184.3 kilometres (114.5 mi) north of the Indian capital, New Delhi, between the rivers Ganges and Yamuna, close to the foothills of the Himalayas.

The city is located in the Roorkee plain which is composed of recent alluvium with a gentle slope.

[17] Roorkee has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa), typical of the northern Indo-Gangetic plain.

A sweltering, dry “hot” season begins in mid-March and extends until mid-June with steadily increasing humidity and discomfort.

This monsoonal rain is accompanied by hot temperatures, very warm mornings, and extremely uncomfortable humidity.

[16] According to the 2011 census Roorkee city has a population of 392,000,[citation needed] within the area of 8.11 square kilometres.

The RMC is administered through the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act 1959 which was adopted and amended by Uttarakhand.

[23] The council is formed every five years through ward councillors's elections and it holds the highest authority within the Urban Local Body (ULB) to make decisions.