Bustling with activity and dotted by cranes and clanking of metals, the 21st century Chennai is undergoing a transition phase and so are its ports, which play a key role in the growth of the city from an obscure fishing village to a megapolis.
As the shorelines undergo change with massive development work, Chennai port considered as the Gateway to East Asia is trying to wriggle out of various challenges, including congestion, to emerge as one of the best in the world.
The port evolved in 1522 when the Portuguese built the São Tomé harbour, named after St Thomas. The control over the coast resulted in battles among the European powers with the East India Company of Britain emerging victorious.
Founded in 1639, the fishing village of Madrasapattinam has undergone tremendous change, withstanding the conquests during the colonial era over the control of port and trade. Historians claim the growth of the city is historically linked to the growth of port, which played a vital part in transforming the erstwhile fishing village to emerge as one of the leading cities of India.
The port rose to prominence in the 18th century. During the time, the company’s ships were anchored about quarter mile offshore and the cargo to and from the ships was transported through small lighters called Masula boats.
In a bid to curb the loss of cargo while transporting through Masula boats, piers were built in 1861, but the storms of 1868 and 1872 made them inoperative. Consequently, an artificial harbour was built and the operations started in 1881.The cargo operations were carried out on the northern pier, located on the north eastern side of Fort St George in Chennai. In the first couple of years the port registered traffic of three lakh tonnes of cargo handling 600 ships.
Being an artificial harbour, the port was vulnerable to cyclones, accretion of sand inside the basin due to underwater currents, which reduced the draft. It was only in 1904, the north eastern entrance was created to control the silt in front of the basin by Sir Francis Spring, the then Chairman of Madras Port Trust. Soon after, quays were constructed in different periods — South Quay-I in 1913, the five West Quay berths in 1916 to 1920, North Quay in 1931 and South Quay II in 1936 in the Inner Harbour, which was later, christened as Dr Ambedkar Dock.
The wet dock of the port came into existence only in 1964 when then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri inaugurated it. The dock was christened Jawahar Dock in memory of India’s first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru.
In tune with the international maritime developments, the port developed the outer harbour, named Bharathi Dock for handling petroleum in 1972 and for mechanised handling of iron ore in 1974.
As the container traffic was growing, a container terminal of 380 metres length was constructed at Bharathi Dock in the year 1983, as a first full-fledged container hub of the country with container storage yard of 51,000 square metres and a container freight station of 6,000 square metre area.
Currently, Chennai port is planning a Rs 3,700 crore mega container terminal with a continuous quay length of 2 km and 18-22m side along draft, capable of handling ultra large container ships carrying over 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
Interestingly, the first oil jetty to handle crude oil imported from Manali refinery came into existence in the 1970s and the first iron ore berth was constructed in 1974 for exporting the product to East Asia including Japan.
As the city is expanding, the number of ports too areincreasing. After the commissioning of Ennore port, the city is set have its third port in Katpuli soon which signifies the growing trade and the role ports play in the country’s development.
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