Engineer was designed in the
Indo-Saracenic architectural style by
John Lockwood and
Ram Singh while its construction was supervised by Sir Ganga Ram. In 1873, after a brief Service in Punjab P.W.D devoted himself to practical farming. He obtained, on lease from the government, of barren, unirrigated land in
Montgomery District, and within three years converted that vast desert into smiling fields,
irrigated by water lifted by a
hydroelectric plant and running through a thousand miles of irrigation channels, all constructed at his own cost. This was the biggest private enterprise of the kind, unknown and unthought-of in the country before. Sir Ganga Ram earned millions most of which he gave to charity. In 1900, Ganga Ram was selected by
Lord Curzon to act as superintendent of works in the
Imperial Durbar to be held in connection with the accession of King
Edward VII. He finished the work at the Darbar managing its manifold problems and challenges. He retired prematurely from service in 1903. He received the title of
Rai Bahadur in 1903, and was appointed a Companion of the
Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) on 26 June 1903 for his services at the Delhi Durbar. On 12 December 1911, in a special honours list after the 1911 Delhi Durbar, he was appointed a Member Fourth Class (present-day Lieutenant) of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO). He was knighted in the
1922 Birthday Honours list, and on 8 July was personally invested with his honour at
Buckingham Palace by the King-Emperor George V. He designed and built
General Post Office, Lahore,
Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore 1921, Lady Mclagan Girls High School, the chemistry department of the Government College University, the Albert Victor wing of
Mayo Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram High School (now
Lahore College for Women), the
Hailey College of Commerce (now
Hailey College of Banking & Finance), Ravi Road House for the Disabled, the Ganga Ram Trust Building on "
The Mall" and Lady Maynard Industrial School. He also constructed Model Town and Gulberg town, once the best localities of Lahore,
the powerhouse at
Renala Khurd as well as the railway track between Pathankot and Amritsar. The construction of
Lahore Museum,
Aitchison College and Mayo School of Arts (now the
National College of Arts) was supervised by him as well.
Service in Patiala State He became Superintending Engineer in
Patiala State for the capital's reconstruction project after his retirement. Amongst his works were Moti Bagh Palace,
Secretariat Building, New Delhi, Victoria Girls School, the law courts and police station. In Tehsil Jaranwala of district
Lyallpur (now
Faisalabad), Ganga Ram built a unique travelling facility, Ghoda Train (horse pulled train). It was a railway line from Buchiana Railway station (on Lahore Jaranwala railway line) to the village of Gangapur. It remained in use for decades even after Independence. It became useless for need of repair in 1980s. It was unique of its kind. It was two simple trollies pulled on a narrow rail track with horse instead of railway engine.
Agriculturalist He took more than 20,000 acres of land on lease from the Government near
Renala and cultivated it by completely irrigating the barren land with hydro-electric pumping. He purchased thousands acres of barren land in Lyallpur on lease and by using engineering skills and modern irrigation methods, turned the arid lands into fertile fields. He established a Maynard-Ganga Ram award of Rs 3000 with a Rs 25000 endowment. The award was to be made every three years for anyone who made an innovation that increased agricultural production in Punjab. ==Death==