The Maharaja Ranjit Singh Fort Phillaur 200 Years 1809-2009

Punjab Police Academy is housed in a Fort which was built between

1809-1812 by Maharaja Ranjit Singh at Phillaur as a counter-measure to British occupation of the Ludhiana Fort. The architect of the Fort is said to have been an Italian engineer. The British forces took over the Fort after the battle of Aliwal in 1846 and it became an important artillery arsenal and magazine. In 1863 the artillery and magazine were withdrawn from the Fort and a detachment of native infantry was left as garrison. In 1891 the Fort was handed over to the Police department where the first Police Training School in the country was set-up on 9th September, 1891.

The School was raised to the status of a College in the year 1967 and to that of an Academy in 1995 which was later affiliated with Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar in 1996 for higher police education and research programmes. Now it caters to the training facilities for Punjab and twelve other Indian states and union territories as well as Central Police Organizations. The countries of Bhutan, Maldives, Afghanistan, Palestine etc. also send their police personnel for training here and the Academy is in partnership with British and Ethiopian Police organisations in the fields of research, academics & specialised training programmes. The institution has undergone a number of refinements in the recent past with the establishment of latest training infrastructure backed by modern structural lay-out and specialised police training modules.

Punjab Police Academy is known internationally for its more than century old traditions and professional training standards.

On the completion of 200 years of construction of the Phillaur Fort, we feel pleasure in bringing out this book depicting the history & heritage of the Fort through articles and photographs and dedicate it to the Bicentennial celebrations of the Fort.