24. PK Thresya – First Woman Chief Engineer( 1924-1981)

 


 

Mrs. A. Lalita was the first woman to get admission in Guindi Engineering College. We have written about her earlier as the  first  woman Electrical Engineer in India. However, the two engineering students who joined right behind her  were P K Thresya and Leelamma George. All three of them graduated in the same year, 1944, because World War II shortened the study period of Thresya's junior batch students to three and a half years.

 

Thresya chose civil engineering as her field of study.  After graduating, she joined the then King of Cochin's princely state as a section officer in the Public Works Department. At that time, it was British rule there. After getting independence, she joined Kerala  government services and became the  Chief Engineer in the Public Works Department under the Government of Kerala in 1971. Thus, she became the first woman chief engineer not only in India but also in Asia.

After she was promoted to the  post of Chief Engineer, Thresya said in a felicitation ceremony held by Malayala Manorama  newspaper, "It was barely three months since I joined the job,  but within that time I realized that the job of an engineer is not as difficult as some women think."

Soon after joining Kochi, she was promoted to Assistant Construction Engineer. One of the first jobs she undertook was the Tuberculosis Hospital at Mulangunnatu Kavu, near Thrissur. Then in 1956 she shifted her office to Ernakulam as an Executive engineer. Engaged in infrastructure development, she directed the construction of around 35 bridges every year during her tenure. Road construction was also done along with it. She also supervised the construction of many hospitals built under the supervision of the Public Works Department. The hospital building for women and children of Kozhikode Medical College was built under the chairmanship of Mrs. Thresya. She did not hesitate to conduct new experiments and successfully started using bituminous rubber mixture on our roads. She also served as a member of the Specifications & Standards Committee of the Indian Road Congress.

Early life and education

Thresya was born on March 12, 1924 in an orthodox Syrian Catholic family. Her primary education was at St. Mary's High School in Kattur. With the encouragement of her father, she joined Guindy Engineering College, Madras as a civil engineering student. Lalita had joined there a year ago and Thresya was accompanied by a student named Leelamma George. All three graduated together in 1944.

Engineering job

As mentioned earlier, she joined the Public Works Department of the state  of Cochin. It was at that time that the Tuberculosis Hospital at Mulamkunnathu kavu was built. Then in 1956, she came to Ernakulam as an executive engineer. Engineer Thresya continued to work in Ernakulam till 1966. In 1966, she also worked as a Superintending Engineer in the Roads & Bridges Department, Kozhikode. In 1971, she was  promoted as Chief Engineer in Public Works Department and moved to Thiruvananthapuram. Engineer Thresya retired from the Kerala Public Works Department in 1979 after completing 34 years of long service. After that he became the founding advisor of 'Taj Engineers'.

Engineer Thresya was not married. Their mother and siblings were with them.

She died of a brain tumour on 18 November 1981.

Reference

https://feminisminindia.com/2020/05/14/pk-thresia-woman-indias-first-chief-engineer/

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