Calcutta Port: India’s first port facility nears 150 years of operation

• Published in: Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Engineering history and heritage 2020-08, Vol.173 (3), p.104-116
• Main Authors: Gardner, Ron M J, Sanyal, Tapobrata, Gangopadhyay, Anasua, Dey, Ayanangshu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bends; Cargo handling; Diurnal; Docks; Maneuvers; Port facilities; Ports; Rivers; Ships; Water levels
• ISSN: 1757-9430; 1757-9449
• DOI: 10.1680/jenhh.19.00028

Calcutta Port Commissioners was established in 1870 as the very first port authority in India by formalising the operational framework of Calcutta’s various riverine port facilities on the River Hooghly. Since the advent of European traders in eastern India, it served as a gateway for world trade with the north and north-east of India. The port’s development initially provided only anchorage facilities, later transformed into riverside jetty operations and finally into impounded dock systems (at Kidderpore and Netaji Subhas Docks). Due to its proximity to the Bay of Bengal, the diurnal and nocturnal tides, flowing up to and well beyond Calcutta, caused significant water level variation and high currents, which made riverside port operations difficult. The river’s many bends and bars had caused ship manoeuvring up the river difficult. To handle progressively increasing ship sizes (in length, beam and draft) and handling of bulk and differently packaged cargo, the port had to manage both river characteristics and plan port facilities of changing character and even move downstream to create, among different facilities, an impounded dock at Haldia. Calcutta Port’s establishment, development and operational history is a particular case study of a riverine port.