Calcutta Port Trust

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Calcutta port started operations in 1870. It was initially designed by the then British Government in line with the Port of London, to take care of its business and colonial interest. Despite innumerable odds faced by the port since its inception, it used to enjoy a premier position amongst the major ports of India and accounted for nearly 50% of the sea-borne trade till independence. However, with the rapid industrialisation in Western India concomitant to gradual deterioration of the industrial sector in Eastern India, the glory of this grand port has been outstripped. Calcutta port, the only riverine major port in India has two docking arms the Calcutta Dock System (CDS) and Haldia Dock Complex (HDC). CDS with its impounded docking arrangement, is located within Calcutta city and connected to Bay of Bengal through 156 nautical miles long navigational channel through river Hooghly. The Hooghly channel, longest ever riverine waterway used by ocean-going vessels, is infamous for its traps, siltations and known to maritime world as one of the highly unpredictable and risky navigational route. HDC is located at the bank of river Hooghly and Haldi, has started operations in 1968 as a satellite port of CDS. It also operates through impounded docking arrangement due to low river draft. The port serves to a vast hinterland, which includes states of West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, states of North-East India and the two land-locked nations of Nepal and Bhutan. Future plan Calcutta Port has outlined expansion plan for handling 50 million tonnes of cargo by 2000-01. The port is considering a fourth oil jetty to handle projected POL traffic.

Calcutta is the oldest major port in the country. But the nucleus of the present day Calcutta Port lies much earlier - with the grant of trading rights to the British Settlement in Eastern India by the Moghal Emperor Aurangzeb. The city of Calcutta, founded by Job Charnok, has a synergistic linkage with the port. In course of time the power to rule this vast country passed from the East India Company to the British Crown. The affairs of the Port were brought under the administrative control of the Government with the appoinment of a Port Commission in 1870. The Calcutta Port was initially conceived to promote and protect the British colonial interest. But with the advent of freedom in 1947, the Port was called upon to play the opposite role to champion the national cause. The Port took over the responsibility in the wake of the aftermath of Second World War and the partition of the country. The Port which was once considered the most important port in the country still remains the premier port which has been rightly called the gateway to Eastern India and is the guiding factor to trade and commerce of vast hinterland comprising the entire Eastern India including Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh and the two land-locked Himalayan Kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan. The Commissioners for the Port of Calcutta ran the port till January 1975 when Major Port Trusts Act, 1963, came into force. The history of Calcutta Port has been a continuous story of struggle and success - it's a saga of uninterrupted development, improvement and achievements. It is not for nothing that it has been able to surpass every target set for it and set all-time records in almost every walk of port activity. It could attain this only because of its professionalism and commitment to perfectionism. In the current year (1998), Calcutta Port has been adjudged as the best managed port in the country. Despite its being 126 miles away from the sea, Calcutta is, by far, the best choice for eastern gateway to this continental-country. Calcutta Port Trust remains one of the pioneering and most promising ports of India. It commands a vast hinterland that comprises almost half of the Indian states (whole of the eastern and north-eastern regions) and the two neighbouring countries - the Himalayan Kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan. It has two dock systems - Calcutta Dock System at Calcutta with the oil wharves at Baj Baj and Haldia Dock Complex at Haldia - have a combination of facilities with a lot of attractive packages. We have the largest dry dock facilities in India. the Cheapest container rate at Haldia. the lowest pre-berthing detention of Vessels at Calcutta Dock System. the most modern Vessel Traffic Management System, allied navigational aids. The differential Global Positioning System has been introduced to replace the existing Syledis network. This is going to make hydrographic surveys more precise and convenient as well.