GROWTH AND DECLINE OF KOLKATA PORT – A GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE

Kolkata Port is a Riverine port in the city of Kolkata, India, located around 203 km from the sea. It is
the oldest operating port in India and was constructed by the British East India Company. In the 19th century
Kolkata Port was the premier port in British India. After independence the volume of throughput has started
declining and its importance decreased because of factors including the Partition of Bengal (1947), silting of
Hugli River, changes in trade, development of rail transportation, reduction in size of the port hinterland,
economic stagnation in eastern India etc. Due to the constraints of the river (like silting, sandbars etc.) no
seagoing vessel above 200 Gross Register Tonnage (GRT) is allowed to navigate without a qualified pilot of
the Kolkata Port Trust. This paper aims to find out the causes of decline and suggests some recommendations
for future development of the port.