Port of Kolkata

Early time In the early 16th century, Since the arrival of the Portuguese, who established the first European contact with Bengal, customs duties collected from trading settlements upstream of the Hooghly River heralded a change in the navigational system of the Ganges. The prosperous Saptagram port at the confluence of the Saraswati and Bhagirathi River was becoming increasingly impassable for ocean-going cargo ships. At this time, the Portuguese first used the present location of the port to anchor their ships, since they found the upper reaches of the Hooghly river, beyond Kolkata, unsafe for navigation. By the end of the 16th century, large Portuguese ships were anchored in Betor. Betor was a place on the outskirts of Kolkata. From Saptagram (Santgao) the goods were ferried by small ships and loaded onto larger ships. In 1570 AD, the Portuguese shifted their trading post from Saptagram to Hooghly, a few miles downstream. Soon Saptagram was replaced by Hooghly as the sea outlet of the region. Hooghly maintained its importance throughout the 17th century. A few decades later, after the Portuguese were driven out by the Mughals in 1632 AD, the Dutch and the English established their trading posts here. But, the trade of Hooghly further downstream, especially as far as Sutanuti and Gobindpur, encouraged the expansion of smaller trading centers and settlements into larger scale activities. Kolkata was a small river port inhabited by weavers and artisans before it was developed as a center for maritime trade by the British East India Company. The port on the Hooghly shore acted as a catalyst in the transformation of the city of Kolkata from a small weaving settlement to a major center of maritime trade in East India. Job Charnock, an employee and administrator of the British East India Company, is believed to have founded a trading post at the site in 1690. Even before settling in Kolkata, the British knew that among the navigable areas of the Hooghly River, the deepest water area is along the eastern bank from Gobindpur to Garden Reach and was easily navigable by large sea-going vessels. Since the area was situated on the river with jungle on three sides, it was considered safe from enemy invasion. From the mid-eighteenth century the growth of Kolkata's port was accelerated by the decline of the Mughal-era major ports of Hooghly on Hooghly River and Surat on the western coast. Company Rule: 1773–1857 In the early colonial period, the main purpose of the port administration under the company's naval office, headed by a master attendant, was to provide pilotage services to ocean-going vessels. The Master Attendant also regularly conducted river surveys to report on the navigability of the river. The port's lack of docking facilities became a particular concern from the mid-eighteenth century, as ships were taken to Bombay for repairs. In 1790, the first dock was built near Bankshall Ghat. Already in 1781, Colonel Watson was granted a site on the southern boundary of the harbor to build a floating dock. Watson set up a marine yard at Kiddirpor and also began construction of a floating dock in 1781, but was forced to abandon the project when legal disputes arose. Watson subsequently turned to shipyards and built a small number of ships before his retirement from the business. After Watson several steps were taken to establish shipbuilding factories in Kolkata, but none of them were comparable to the shipbuilding activities of Parsi Enterprises in Bombay. twice by the Japanese forces. On 12 January 2020, the port was renamed to Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of 150 years of operation of Kolkata Port at Netaji Indoor Stadium. The port is part of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region of Trieste with its rail connections to Central and Eastern Europe. ==Dock systems==