Kolkata Port Trust

Kolkata is the earliest major port in the country. But the nucleus of the present day Kolkata Port lies much earlier - with the grant of trading rights to the British Settlement in Eastern India by the Moghal Emperor Aurangzeb. The city of Kolkata has a synergistic linkage with the portIn course of time the power to rule this vast country passed from the East India Company to the British Crown. The affairs of the Port were brought under the administrative control of the Government with the appointment of a Port Commission in 1870. Kolkata Port is the only riverine Major Port in India, situated 232 km. up-stream from the Sandheads, having arguably the longest navigational channel amongst Major Ports of India and its navigational channel is one of the longest in the world. At one end at Kidderpore, it has the lowest draft and the other end at Sandheads, it has the deepest draft (more than 50 metres) amongst Indian and world ports despite its being 126 miles away from the sea, Kolkata is, by far, the best choice for eastern gateway to this continental-country. Kolkata Port Trust remains one of the pioneering and most promising ports of India