Chennai Port - History

History

Before 1800s

Although the settlement of Madras did not form until after the mid-17th century, the region surrounding the present-day port remained an important centre for military, administrative, and economic activities since the 1st century AD under various South Indian dynasties, namely, the Pallava, the Pandya, the Chola and the Vijayanagara empires. Chief among them was the Pallava dynasty, which reigned from the 6th to 9th centuries AD. The ancient town of Mylapore, known to Roman traders as "Meliapor", was an important port of the Pallavas and is now part of Chennai.

The region also attracted many distant civilisations, with the Christian apostle St. Thomas having preached in the area between 52 and 70 AD. In 1522, the Portuguese built the São Tomé harbour, named after St. Thomas, on the site of today's port and the São Tomé church on the grave of Saint Thomas. The following years saw the arrival of other Europeans, namely, the Dutch arriving at Pulicat in 1613 and the British arriving in 1639. In 1639, the British East India Company bought a three-mile long strip of land lying along the coast between the Cooum delta and the Egmore River encompassing an area of about five square kilometres from the Vijayanagara King Peda Venkata Rayalu. Soon obtaining permission from the regional ruler, Damarla Venkatadri Nayakudu, the British built a warehouse and factory on the site, and in 1940, the British expanded the occupation by building the Fort St. George and establishing a colony on the site of the future port of Madras.

In 1746, under the leadership of Admiral La Bourdonnais, French forces captured and plundered Madras, the fort and surrounding villages. However, they returned the town along with the port to the British under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. The British then strengthened the fort to defend the port not only from the French but also from the increasingly powerful Sultan of Mysore and other regional rulers.

The British era

By the late 18th century, most of the southern region of India had been conquered by the British and Madras was established as the capital of the Madras Presidency. During this period, the port flourished under British rule, becoming an important naval base and urban center. A port at Madras was first suggested by Warren Hastings in 1770 when he was posted here, who later became the first Governor General of India. However, it was not until the 1850s that work began on a pier to berth vessels following suggestions from the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Till 1815, it was an open roadstead and exposed sandy coast, swept by occasional storms and monsoons. At the time, the natural harbor was so shallow that ships had to anchor over 1 km (0.62 mi) offshore, and cargo was delivered to and from the shore in masula boats and catamarans. Cargo losses were high, close to 90 percent, in addition to pilfering with several goods from the ships often taken to the nearby evening bazaar. A 335 m (1,099 ft) iron-screw pile pier capable of berthing larger vessels was built perpendicular to the shore in 1861. However, the storms of 1868 and 1872 made the initial piers inoperative. In 1875, Edward VII laid the foundation stone for a new port, and the masonry work for L-shaped breakwaters was started in 1876. The northern and southern groynes of the harbour were constructed, in order to create a still water enclosure that would be unaffected by storm and surf water. However, the groynes collapsed in 1877. The same year, construction of the south pier was commenced with concrete blocks weighing 33 tonnes each brought from Pallavaram, and the port started handling ships inside the harbour from 1881. However, again the storm of 12 November 1881 completely washed the almost-completed harbour, breaching over half a mile of breakwater. An artificial harbour was then built and the operations were started in 1881, and the pier was rebuilt in 1885, although there was a demand for relocating the entrance. Work on the harbour was completed in 1911. The Chennai Port Trust has taken the year 1881, the year of rebuilding, as the starting year. The cargo operations were carried out on the northern pier, located on the northeastern side of Fort St. George in Chennai. In the first couple of years the port registered traffic of 300,000 tonnes of cargo handling 600 ships. The first railway line in South India was laid between Madras and Arcot which started operating in 1856. By the late 19th century, the port was well connected to the other two important cities in the British colony, viz. Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta (Kolkata). In 1904, a new northeastern entrance was added to control siltation in the basin, after closing the original eastern entrance. The port's quays (berths) were constructed at different periods—the South Quay I in 1913, the five west quay berths between 1916 and 1920, the north quay in 1931 and the South Quay II in 1936, in the Inner Harbour, later christened Dr. Ambedkar Dock. Chennai was the only Indian city to be attacked by the Central Powers during World War I when a German cruiser, SMS Emden, shelled the oil depot within the port belonging to the Burmah Oil Company and raided vessels in 1914 disrupting trade, resulting in the death of at least 5 sailors. The port was also the only operational one in eastern waters during the Second World War. In 1911, the Royal Madras Yacht Club (RMYC), which is based within the Chennai Port premises, was founded by Sir Francis Joseph Edward Spring, the first chairman on the Madras Port Trust who was responsible for Chennai becoming a trading hub, especially during World War II. In 1916, the harbour office building was constructed.

From 1905 to 1919, major improvements took place in the port under the stewardship of the visionary Sir Francis Spring. Being an artificial harbour, the port was vulnerable to cyclones and accretion of sand inside the basin due to underwater currents, which reduced the draft. To charter the course of the port development, Spring, who assumed charge as the chief engineer of the port in 1906, drew a long-term plan in a scientific manner to overcome challenges, both artificial and natural. The shifting of the entrance of the port from eastern side to the northeastern side protected the port to a large extent from the natural vulnerabilities. By this time, the port covered an area of 400 acres. By the end of 1920, the port had a dock consisting of four berths in the west quays, one each in the east and south quay along with the transit sheds, warehouses and a marshalling yard to facilitate the transfer of cargo from land to sea and vice versa. In 1929, the Mercantile Marine Department, which was working directly under the Ministry of Shipping till the establishment of the Directorate General of Shipping at Mumbai in 1949, was established to implement the first SOLAS and Load Line conventions. Additional berths were added in the 1940s with a berth at south quay and another between WQ2 and WQ3. The year 1946 saw the establishment of the Port Health Organisation. In 1947, when India gained independence, Chennai became the capital of the Madras State, renamed as Tamil Nadu in 1969.

Post-Independence

Post-Independence, the development of the port gained momentum. In 1959, a passenger station on the first floor of the transit shed at north quay was commissioned. In 1961, construction of signal station at north quay was completed. In the same year, the port's Jawahar Dock was inaugurated by the then prime minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri. In 1964, the Jawahar dock with capacity to berth 6 vessels to handle dry bulk cargoes such as coal, iron ore, fertilizer and non-hazardous liquid cargoes was created on the southern side changing the topography of the port. To handle vessels with as much as 16.2 m (53 ft) draft, the port developed the outer harbour, named Bharathi Dock, for handling petroleum in 1972 and for mechanized handling of iron ore in 1974. In 1972, the first oil jetty was constructed at Bharathi Dock-I capable of handling tankers up to 100,000 DWT to handle imports of crude oil destined for the Manali Oil Refinery (later named the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited). In 1974, the iron ore berth was added to the port for exports to Japan and other countries in the Far East. The second oil jetty was added at Bharathi Dock-III in 1986 capable of handling tankers up to 140,000 DWT to meet increasing demands for crude oil and petroleum products. The iron ore terminal is equipped with mechanized ore-handling plant commissioned in 1977 at Bharathi Dock-II capable of handling ore carriers of maximum size 1,45,000 DWT, one of the three such facility in the country, with a capacity of handling 8 million tonnes and a loading rate of 6,000 tonnes per hour. The port's share of iron ore export from India is 12 per cent. The dedicated facility for oil led to the development of oil refinery in the hinterland. This oil terminal is capable of handling Suezmax vessels.

In the 1970s, containerisation started in India in a limited way with the creation of interim container handling facilities at Mumbai and Cochin ports in 1973. During the same period, Chennai Port began handling containerized cargoes. In 1983, a container terminal was built at the Bharathi Dock with a 380-metre (1,250 ft) quay, a 51,000-square-metre (550,000 sq ft) container yard, and a 6,000-square-metre (65,000 sq ft) container freight station, which was commissioned by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi on 18 December 1983 as the country's first dedicated container terminal facility. The terminal was provided with tow-shore cranes and other shore facilities. In 1991, the port's container terminal quay was lengthened by 220 m (720 ft) with two additional tow shore cranes. In November 2001, the container terminal and back-up area was privatized through a 30-year concession with Chennai Container Terminal Private Limited. Continually increasing container traffic resulted in another 285-metre (935 ft) extension of the quay in 2002, bringing the total berth length to 885-metre (2,904 ft). During 2008-09, the port recorded a 17.2% share of container traffic in India. Having the capability of handling fourth-generation vessels, the terminal is ranked among the top 100 container ports in the world. To meet the demand in container handling, the port is added with the second container terminal with a capacity to handle 1.5 million TEUs. The port is also planning a mega container terminal, capable of handling 4 million TEUs per annum expected to be operational from 2013, when the first phase of the project will be completed. The full project will be completed by 2017.

When the city of Madras was renamed as Chennai in 1996, the Madras Port Trust followed suit and was renamed as Chennai Port Trust. In 2000, the port began to handle pure-car-carrier shipments of automobiles. In 2003, the 200 m naval berth was given for 30-year lease. The 2004 tsunami devastated the shores of the port, taking many lives and permanently altering the coastline.