IIT Roorkee is situated at the foothill of the Himalayas, in Hardwar district, within the state of Uttarakhand. Roorkee is a quiet town of moderate size in the district of Haridwar (Uttarakhand), is located on the banks of the upper Ganga Canal, which takes off at Haridwar, 30km away. It is the gateway to the pilgrim centres of Hardwar, Rishikesh, Badrinath and Kedarnath, and tourist attractions of Dehradun and Mussoorie. Roorkee is well connected to Delhi by rail and road. It is situated on National Highways 58 and 73 and is on Amritsar-Howrah main rail route.

Upper Ganga Canal

The Ganga Canal (also, Ganges Canal) is a canal system that irrigates the Doab region between the Ganges River and the Yamuna River in India. The canal is primarily an irrigation canal, although parts of it were also used for navigation mainly of its construction material. Separate navigation channels with lock gates were provided on this system for boats to negotiate falls. Originally constructed from 1842 to 1854, for an original head discharge of 6000 cusecs, Upper Ganga Canal has since been enlarged gradually for the present head discharge of 10,500 ft³/s (295 m³/s). The system constitutes of main canal of 272 miles and about 4000 miles long distribution channels. The canal system irrigates nearly 9,000 km² of fertile agricultural land in ten districts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal. Today the canal is the source of agricultural prosperity in much of these states, and the irrigation departments of these states actively maintain the canal against a fee system charged from users.