PORT VISIT REPORT (NSD KOLKATA)

Date: 03 JUNE 2022

SUBMITTED BY
Puneet Kathuria

Roll Number: 2241588

Batch: EPGDIBS-05

Guide Professor: - Prof. Oindrilla Dey

 Visit to Kolkata Port
In the early 16th century, 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. 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. Since the area was situated on the river with jungle on three sides, it was
considered safe from enemy invasion. After the abolition of slavery in the British
Empire in 1833, this port was used to ship lakhs of Indians as 'indentured labourers' to
far-flung territories throughout the Empire.
After slavery was abolished in 1833, there was a high demand for labourers on sugar
cane plantations in the British Empire. From 1838 to 1917, the British used this port to
ship off over half a million Indians from all over India — mostly from the Hindi Belt
(especially Bhojpur and Awadh) — and take them to places across the world, such as
Mauritius, Fiji, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, and other
Caribbean islands as indentured labourers. There are millions of Indo-Mauritians, Indo-
Fijians, and Indo-Caribbean people in the world today.
As Kolkata grew in size and importance, merchants in the city demanded the setting up
of a port trust in 1863. The colonial government formed a River Trust in 1866, but it
soon failed, and administration was again taken up by the government. Finally, in 1870,
the Calcutta Port Act (Act V of 1870) was passed, creating the offices of Calcutta Port
Commissioners. In 1869 and 1870, eight jetties were built on the Strand. A wet dock
was set up at Khidirpur in 1892. The Khidirpur Dock II was completed in 1902. As cargo
traffic at the port grew, so did the requirement of more kerosene, leading to the building
of a petroleum wharf at Budge Budge in 1896. In 1925, the Garden Reach jetty was
added to accommodate greater cargo traffic. A new dock, named King George's Dock,
was commissioned in 1928 (it was renamed Netaji Subhash Dock in 1973).
Though the port was conceived to be a commercial port and gateway of eastern India,
the port played a very important role in the Second World War. It was bombed[18]
twice by the Japanese forces. After independence, the Commissioners for the Port of
Kolkata were responsible for the port till January 1975 when Major Port Trusts Act,
1963, came into force. The Port is now run by a Board of Trustees having
representatives from the Government, Trade Bodies, various Port Users, Labour Unions
and some nominated members. 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
 o Berths are located at two places:
o Kolkata Dock System – 232 Km upstream from sand head
o Haldia Dock System – 28 m upstream from sand head
o KDS handles majorly containers and break bulk cargo and has 34
berth
o HDC majorly handles bulk cargo material and has 15 berth
o KoPT has vast hinterland and has connection with inland through
NH-6, NH-2 and NH-34

2. Locations & Map of Kolkata Dock System

Dock systems
The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) manages two separate dock agglomerations, the Kolkata
Dock System (KDS) and the Haldia Dock Complex (HDC).
Kolkata Dock System
It is situated on the left bank of the Hooghly River at about 203 km (126 mi) upstream
from the sea. The pilotage station is at Gasper/ Saugor roads, 145 Kilometres to the
south of the KDS (around 58 km from the sea). The system consists of
 Kidderpore Docks (K.P. Docks) : 18 Berths, 6 Buoys / Moorings and 3 Dry Docks
  Netaji Subhas Docks (N.S. Docks): 10 Berths, 2 Buoys / Moorings and 2 Dry
Docks
 Budge Budge River Moorings : 6 Petroleum Wharves
 Anchorages : Diamond Harbour, Saugor Road, Sandheads Apart from this, there
are around 80 major riverine jetties, and many minor jetties, and a large number
of ship breaking berths
Kolkata Dock System Railway (KDS Railway)
KDS Railway was set up to cater to the traffic needs for docks, warehouses in the
vicinity and various public and private sidings located around the Kolkata docks system.
It works as a terminal agent of Indian Railways and operationally under Sealdah
Division of Eastern Railway. KDS Rly has a working Agreement with Eastern Railway
and render services to the users on behalf of them. Though KDS railway initially had
many interfaces with Eastern Railway/South Eastern Railway and covered a wide range
of area including Chitpur, Shalimar, and Garden Reach, at present its operation is
truncated in the dock area only with the sole marshalling yard at East Dock Junction
(EJC). The total track length of KDS railway is about 18 km (11 mi).
It is connected with Eastern Railway through the Majerhat railway station. Indian
Railways bring traffic for KDS through full-fledged goods trains (rakes) in the East Dock
Junction (EJC), by their locomotives. Thereafter KDS railway, after necessary
documentation and certain mechanical work, place the trains in the respective handling
points (inside docks or private sidings), in full or instalments as per operational
feasibility. After completion of loading/unloading operation at Sheds/Docks/sidings etc,
the rakes are hauled out and outward trains are formed at the marshalling yard (EJC).
Again, after documentation, the outward rakes are dispatched by the locomotives
provided by Eastern Railway.
Dry Dock
KoPT has the largest dry dock facility in India . These dry docks cater to the diverse
repair and maintenance needs of the vessels calling on the Eastern Ports of India. In
addition, shipbuilding facilities are also available in these dry docks. All the dry docks
are inside the impounded dock system. There are five dry docks of which three are in
Kidderpore Dock and two are in Netaji Subhas Dock.
There is a fully-fledged repair workshop including Diesel Engine Overhauling Unit,
Structural Shop, Heavy and Light Machine Shop, Forging Shop, Electrical Shop and a
Chain Testing/Repair Shop with 2500 KN capacity Tensile Compression Testing
Machine to support various activities in the dry dock.
Pilotage
Due to the constraints of the river (like silting, sandbars etc.) no seagoing vessel above
200 GT is allowed to navigate without a qualified pilot of the Kolkata Port Trust. The
total pilotage distance to KDS is 221 kilometres (137 mi), comprising 148 kilometres
(92 mi) in river and 75 kilometres (47 mi) in sea, and for HDC is 121 kilometres (75 mi),
comprising 46 kilometres (29 mi) in river and 75 kilometres (47 mi) in sea.
Navigational Aids
Lighthouse: Sagar Lighthouse is situated at Middleton Point on the Sagar Island 1.5
kilometres (0.93 mi) inshore. It is visible from a distance of 28 kilometres (17 mi) in
clear weather.
Dariapur Lighthouse is situated on the right bank of Hooghly River south of Rasulpur
river and about 2.7 kilometres (1.7 mi) inshore. It is visible from a distance of 35
kilometres (22 mi) in clear weather.[13]
Light Vessels
There are four unmanned light vessels to aid in navigation.
U.G.L.F. located at
L.G.L.F. located at
Talent WK L.V. located at
Eastern Channel L.V. located at
Automatic Tide Gauges
These are maintained at Tribeni, Garden Reach, Diamond Harbour and Haldia for
round-the-clock recording of tidal data, which is used for the prediction of tides and
preparation of tide tables by Survey of India.

Semaphores
These are maintained at Akra, Moyapur, Hooghly Point, Balari, Gangra and Sagar for
displaying rises of tide for the convenience of various vessels navigating, dredging and
surveying in the River Hooghly. The semaphores used to display the tide level at these
localities on a mast by the position of the meter and decimeter arms which were
manually rotated with the rise and fall of every decimeter of tidal level. However these
semaphores are no longer functional and instead, tidal levels are broadcast over VHF
radio every half an hour from all the above stations except at Balari.
 River Marks and Buoys
A total of 500 (of which 140 are lighted) River Marks and Buoys are maintained by the
KoPT. These are extremely useful in facilitating night navigation, pilotage and dredging.
These lights are operated either by grid electricity, by battery or by dissolved Marine
Acetylene Gas. There is also 1 boat buoy, 30 lighted buoys and 72 unlit buoys marking
the navigational channel from Sandheads to Kolkata. It has one of the longest
navigational channels in the world.

Differential Global Positioning System

In the wide estuary, position fixing with reference to shore objects to be viewed from
the deck of a vessel, is very difficult. In 1983 KoPT introduced the Electronic Position
Fixing System "Syledis" for position fixing of the vessels plying in the wide estuary of
the Hooghly river. The shore-based Syledis Position Fixing System was functioning
round the clock with the help of the Syledis Stations located at Haldia, Raichak,
Dadanpatra Bar and Frazergunj. The system was effectively utilized for the purpose of
hydrographic survey and dredging. KoPT has now replaced the Syledis Position Fixing
System by Differential GPS (Differential Global Position Fixing System). This latest state-
of the art technology provides improved location accuracy of up to 10 cm.
Performance - Cause and Factor Analysis

Factors Causes

Stagnant material Delay in the ship passage due to unprecedented cuts and drafts made it less
Handing preferable option and only the needy used the service of port

High Demurrage As the ship passage was delayed the entire cycle of loading and unloading
charges was also affected

Drop in total material KDS experienced a drop in cargo carriage specifically the eatable items due
handled to decrease in demand

Unequal distribution in While the demand for containerised item decreased, the demand in
traffic between KDS commercial item such as coking coal, iron ore and general cargo. The
and HDC exclusivity in the handling features of port lead to congestion at one port
and also uneven distribution of traffic

Drop in the revenue However, the revenue increased during the decade (90-20), the net revenue
and profit dropped. The major causes being increase in the operational cost mainly
dredging and employee cost.
Supporting agent Inefficiency in the supporting agents such as carrying and forwarding
problems agents, steamers and customs

Dredging Expenses
 High dredging expense due to heavy siltation in Hooghly river
 Untimely and irregular reimbursement from the government
 High dredging expense and delay in reimbursement of the expense
leading to reduction in port charges and hence resulted in the reduced
fare and revenue collection
Employee Issues
• High dredging expense and non-timely reimbursement from the
government led to irregular cash flow
• This resulted in irregular salary payment
• The domino effect arising from it has major repercussions
• Employee morale was reduced extremely and hence the productivity when
down
• Other problems such as delay in pension payment of the retired employee
due to lack of corpus cash was multiplying the distress situation
Discontinuation of KPD –II, poor road connectivity and higher maintenance
• Poor connectivity has lead to decline of exports from farther hinterland areas
such as UP , Bihar
• Higher maintenance cost for railway lines was another concern
 Bringing In PPP (Public Private Partnership)
 Enhancement of capacity utilization at the ports
 Leasing out of berth 12 at HDC to Tata Martrade International Logistic
Limited on build operate and transfer basis
 Allotment of berth 4A under similar contract to International Seaports ltd.
 This resulted in high return in terms of capital invested for the development of
the ports
 Further the move coincided with the government’s decision of developing port
with a public private partnership only
 Customer oriented policies
 Creation of groups for understanding the market and customer
perspectives
  Rationalization of the tariffs based on through put time of the cargo
 Providing assistance for agency jobs such as forwarding, streaming and
customs
 Operational transformation
 Allowing deep draft operation for cape size vessels
 Reopening of KPD-II and carrying out modernization in order to increase
productivity
 Manpower transformation and changes
 Reduction of manpower from 41000 to 14000
 Computerization of the documentation jobs thus avoiding the corruption
on the part of babu’s and documentation
 Impacts of Transformation
 Initiatives led to increase in traffic from 30 mt in 2001-02 to 55 mt in
2006-07.
 In 2006-07, KoPT contributed 13% of total Indian major port cargo.
 2nd rank after Viskhapatnam port in terms of total port cargo.
 80% increase in container traffic.
 3204 ships handled at KoPT in 2006-07
 Net surplus increased from -7.53 cr in 2000-01 to 465 cr in 2006-07.
 Average turnaround Time of Ships was reduced to 3.95 days in 2006-07
from 4.21 days in 2001-02
 At KDS, Average output per ship increased from 2215 T in 2001-02 to
4490 T in 2006-07
 At HDC, Average output per ship increased from 6207 T in 2001-02 to
8770 T in 2006-07
 There was an increase in railway earnings from 36.9 cr in 2001-02 to
139.2 cr in 2006-07.
 The earnings from estate rentals nearly doubled during the same period
Competition
Dharma Port
• Concession from Orissa Government to build on BOT for a peroid of 34
years.
• Planned to be deepest ports of India with a draft of 18m.
• Can accommodate vessels upto 180000 DWT.
• 13 berths capable of handling 83mt per annum.
Paradip Port
 • 8th major port, opened in 1966.
• Serve a large hinterland of Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgargh
and Bihar
• Port mainly deals with bulk Cargo.
Kulpi Port
• Weather port facilities
• Environment-friendly ship breaking yard
• Industrial park

Statistics
In the fiscal year 2013–14, Port of Kolkata handled 41.386 million metric tons (45.620
million short tons) of cargo. This is significantly less than 53.143 million metric tons
(58.580 million short tons) of cargo it handled in 2005–06. However, the number of
vessels handled at Kolkata Port during 2013–2014 was the highest among all Indian Major
Ports. KoPT handled 17.1% of the total number of vessels, which worked at Indian Major
Ports in 2011–2012; significant improvement over 2011-12 which was 16%. During the
fiscal year 2011–2012, 3183 vessels called at KoPT. The average turnaround time per
vessel was 4.18 days for Kolkata Dock System and 3.37 for Haldia Dock Complex.