History
The British Royal India Navy first appraised the Kandla stream in 1851 for suitability as a port; however, they did not conduct a detailed survey until 1922. The Port of Kandla was created in 1931 with a single pier by erstwhile ruler of Kutch, Khengarji III, who personally identified the spot and also connected the port by extending the lines of Cutch State Railway from Anjar. After Indian independence in the late 1940s, the new government selected the Port of Kandla as a promising outlet to the Arabian Sea.
When the Port of Karachi was lost to Pakistan, maritime trade in the area shifted to the Port of Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Mumbai's facilities were soon strained beyond capacity. In early 1948, the Indian government created the West Coast Major Port Development Committee to study the feasibility of building a major seaport to replace the Port of Karachi that went to Pakistan during partitioning. The Committee recommended locating a port at Kandla.
In 1952, Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone for the upgradation and expansion the port on India's northwestern coast. The Port of Kandla was declared a major port in April 1955. The Kandla Port Trust was created by law in 1963 to manage the new port.
In 1998, a severe tropical cyclone hit the port. The official death toll was 1,000 but locals in the area believed it to be much higher. Most of the casualties came from illegal immigrant workers in the port itself and poor shanty towns in the region.
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