[BITList] India's oldest port to flaunt its legacy

[John Feltham]

G'day Folks,



From a correspondent…




India’s oldest port to flaunt its legacy

Jayanta Gupta <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Jayanta-Gupta-4155.cms> | TNN | Feb 11, 2018, 07:58 IST
 
KOLKATA: Nearly 147 years after the official birth of the port in the city, the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) has embarked on a mission to highlight its rich heritage. Shielded from public view is a piece of important history of the city overlooked by a tower peaked by a Cooke and Kelvey turret clock dating back to 1899. 

"Kolkata needs to remember her glorious past along with the heritage the port proudly holds. To showcase its history, KoPT set up a museum at the Fairley Warehouse <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Fairley-Warehouse>, an early 20th century peer of the Strand Warehouse that was lost in a fire on February 14, 2010. The new port management is now mulling new ways to bring this heritage within the reach of the residents of the city," says Gautam Chakraborti, security advisor and heritage researcher, KoPT. 

Though the city had witnessed maritime activity well before that, the Kolkata port was officially born on October 17, 1870 and placed under the administration of the Port Commissioners (later to become the Port Trust). The first one to be born in the country through enactments of the British government, the port in Kolkata continued to remain the second largest and busiest in the British Empire <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/British-Empire> after London. 

"Even in the 1920s, a few years after the end of the First World War, the Port was the country's busiest, handling nearly half of India's trade. The Port Commissioners' own railway line opened in 1875, a part of which is now extended and used by the Circular Railway. The historic Calcutta jetties, where the Millennium Park now stands, were the first string of landing points on shore for cargo ships that came to port flying flags of the UK, USA, France and Netherlands. Kidderpore Docks was inaugurated in 1892 with the arrival of the British schooner "Louise". The second phase of the docks came up further downstream towards Garden Reach in 1929 to accommodate larger ships," Chakraborti adds. 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/indias-oldest-port-to-flaunt-its-legacy/articleshow/62868914.cms <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/indias-oldest-port-to-flaunt-its-legacy/articleshow/62868914.cms>

ooroo




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