Let’s face it. This is a city that takes itself very seriously. You can see it in the way people drive around, clutching a cell phone, talking into it all the time, taking time off only to abuse others on the road. You can also see it in the way parents push their children into ten thousand different activities – keyboard, classical music, dance, drums, mental arithmetic using the abacus, tennis, swimming – all in the absolute certainty that they have given birth to a David Brian, a M.S. Subbulakshmi, a Kumari Kamala, a Sivamani, a Srinivasa Ramanujan, a Federer and a Spitz – all rolled into one, of course.
You can see them walking up and down the length of the swimming pool forgetting that they cannot swim themselves, giving instructions to the poor child to now breathe, to now lift its arms, to kick its legs and now not to breathe, not to lift its arms and not to kick. As for academics, what is a child for if not to score that acme of Chennai perfection, the dreaded centum?
Centum is a word that is hardly heard outside our city. But then so are so many other words used here. Have you ever reflected on how most words in Madras bhashai are actually not from Tamil? Thus you have naina, dubbu, duddu and dindu which are from Telugu, Peter, Mary, assault, regent (actually decent) and feed (speed) which are from the Queen’s own language, and bejaar and galeej which are from Urdu. And what about kasmaalam which is actually from Sanskrit? We also have phrases from Hindi but they are crudely anatomical and no respectable journal can publish such things.
But to get back to the centum and its awful consequences. Somewhere along the line, most parents realise that their child will have to drop all its extra-curricular activities and focus on the centum. And having achieved that, the child is shipped out to foreign lands. It becomes an NRI. And the parent becomes an IAS or an IA&AS. The former stands for Indian Ayah Service and the latter for Indian Ayah & Aduppumadai (kitchen) Service, for which the parent is invited each summer to overseas lands to take care of the grandchildren during summer vacation, cook meals and also fill the deep freeze before leaving. While there, the parents acquire sneakers and ten-dollar T Shirts with slogans like “I am hot” or “TCP/IP certified” and come back home to don them each morning for walks. And the conversation during these walks invariably centres on “my son who is in Dubai (wherever that is) or my daughter in Sunnyvale.”
The children come back once in a while too – especially at this time of the year – and you can spot them a mile off. Not just by their sneakers and ubiquitous water-bottle but also because of the time warp in which they are when it comes to India. To them Chennai is still Madras, with Safire theatre, Woodlands Driver-In and An Adyar bird-watching. Their idea of cost of living has also rather unfortunately remained the same and so when they go shopping, what with their tendency to multiply/divide every price tag into their home currencies, they buy very little.
The brain-drain that sent these people away has also caused problems for Chennai’s bungalows. These vast houses, with huge gardens, plenty of rooms (but hardly any bedrooms) and one toilet, were meant for families of twenty and more and a domestic staff of like strength. Most residences like these also had the unmarried/slightly dim-witted poor cousin (ammanji/atthan) who was general dogsbody. He worked the water-pump, did the shopping, tended to the sick and looked after grandmother when she had her spells. But over the years everyone migrated. As for dim-witted cousin, his children too have moved on and he now lives in a swank gated-community with an outlandish name like Abhirami Beverly or Alamelu Regency. And he looks down on you for still clinging on to your crumbling bungalow. And you are forced to clean your own water tank, though you have vertigo. And when you go out, you have to make sure that you have locked all the windows and doors and switched off the water pump, or have you? Doubts begin assailing you halfway through the movie or the concert and so it is time to go home and check.
Then one day, the old bungalow is flattened and a multi-storeyed block of flats comes up in its place. No more closing of multiple windows or worrying about the leak from the back verandah. But before you know it, a fly-over comes up just next to the third floor window. Through it, commuters can look in to see what is cooking for the day, who is using a size 36 brief, and how often the interior of your flat is dusted. Very few, however, are bothered. They are speaking seriously into their phones, even as they drive on, pausing only to abuse others. But that is where we started, wasn’t it? – (Courtesy – Matrix, journal of The Sanmar Group).
Forming an Indian Merchant Marine was not an easy task. In fact, the process of forming, training and deploying the Indian Merchant Marine faced considerable difficulties.
In its first session of the reformed Central Legislative Assembly, Sir P.S. Sivaswamy Aiyar moved a resolution on January 12, 1922 to constitute a committee to explore the possibilities of creating a training process for Indian Merchant Navy officers. Of the five points in the resolution, one dealt with training facilities for Indian Merchant Marine. It provided for the recruitment of Indians as Deck or Executive Officers and Engineers in the marine service and establishment of a nautical college.
Sir P.S. Sivaswami Aiyar.
The Government took a year before acting on the resolution. The Indian Mercantile Marine Committee was formed on February 3, 1923, headed by Captain E.J. Headlam, Director of the Royal Indian Marine. It had five members, Indian interests being represented by Lalubhai Samaldas of the Scindias and Jadhunath Roy of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce.
The report was submitted in March 1924. Its recommendations included the establishment of a training school for Engine and Deck Officers by converting a troop ship into a training ship. This was the first attempt in colonial India to train Indian Merchant Navy officers. But the Government was reluctant to put this into practice. The recommendations went into cold storage and it was again P.S. Sivaswamy Aiyar who took up the issue by moving another resolution in the Assembly on March 19, 1926. This resolution had, besides training, other matters concerning the Indian merchant fleet.
The Commerce member, Sir Charles Innes, was against those points in the resolution talking about the merchant marine but was sympathetic towards training. But, he wondered, “Would the right boys from the right classes come for training in this hard line?” He, however, finally recommended the training of Deck Officers.
The result was the establishment of the Training Ship Dufferin in December 1927 under the command of Captain Digby Beste. 77 boys were recruited and the doubts of the British that sufficient number of Indians would not join were proved wrong.
But the negative attitude towards employing Indian officers continued and, by 1936, only 25 of the Dufferin cadets found employment in the British shipping companies in India. The only Indian company, Scindias, was not able to absorb many cadets, as it had only a few ships.
The Hindu editorially observed, “When for more than a generation India was pleading that she should be allowed to develop a strong merchant navy as a second line of defence nobody paid heed to this. Why, even after the war began, how consistently have vested interests for whom the British Government have a soft corner been blocking the efforts of Indian Industrialists to establish a shipping Industry. . .”
The credit for the training of Indian officers and engineers goes to the house of Scindias. It dedicated not only s.s. Iravady as a training ship but also Bahaduri as a shore establishment attached to its ship repair yard for the training of marine engineers.
All the efforts of Sir P.S. Sivaswamy Aiyar and the Scindias bore fruit fully only in 1950, when m.v. Jalagopal sailed into Singapore harbour with a 100 per cent complement of Indian officers, engineers and crew members.
Today we have the Indian Maritime University, under the MOST, and another privately run Marine University in Chennai and several institutes teaching marine subjects. The pity is that not even one of the institutes remembers Sir P.S. Sivaswamy Aiyar. But for his resolutions moved in the Central Assembly, the Indian Merchant Marine would not have been what it is today!
The Tamil Nadu Maritime Board was formed in 1997 under the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board Act 1995, to administer, control, regulate and manage the minor ports in Tamil Nadu. There are three major ports, namely Ennore, Chennai and Tuticorin, under the control of the Government of India, and 21 minor ports situated on the 1076 km-long coastline of Tamil Nadu. In addition, two minor ports are under consideration of the Government.
The State’s minor ports include seven government ports and 14 captive ports operated by private companies for thier own use.
Government Ports
Cuddalore: Chemplast Sanmar Limited has developed a Marine Terminal Facility (MTF) within Cuddalore Port limits to handle Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) required for the Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) factory in the SIPCOT Complex. And Cuddalore Powergen Corporation Limited has proposed setting up a jetty.
Nagapattinam: Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited has established a jetty to handle the products of its refinery and is handling cargo through the jetty.
Pamban: This port is situated on Rameswaram Island. Its only function is to pilot small-draft vessels passing through the Pamban Channel in the Gulf of Mannar.
Rameswaram: An in-principle approval has been granted for the running of a passenger ferry service for a short distance in the Agnitheertham area of Rameswaram. The Government of India and the Sri Lankan Government have proposed reviving the Indo-Sri Lankan ferry service, when this port would serve that service too.
Valinokkam: There is no activity at this port in the Ramanathapuram District.
Kanniyakumari: This port is solely meant for the Poompuhar Shipping Corporation Ltd.’s ferry service between the shore and Vivekanada Rock Memorial/Ayyan Thiruvalluvar statue.
Colachel: This port in Kanniyakumari District and very close to the international shipping lanes has been identified as a suitable port for developing into a container tran-shipment hub port.
Captive Ports
Kattupalli: This port, near Ennore, has been extended for the establishing of a shipyard-cum-minor port complex by L&T Shipbuilding Limited. A proposal to decalre Kattupalli as a Sea Customs port is under consideration. Construction of the North breakwater upto 400 m and South breakwater upto 600 m has been completed.
Ennore Minor Port: The port, comprising the marine structures of a Multiple Buoy Mooring System with submarine pipeline to receive Liquid Ammonia, has been developed by M/s. Coromandel International Ltd., Chennai
Mugaiyur: Marg Swarnabhoomi Port Private Limited has proposed developing a ship repair facility here.
Thiruchopuram: Nagarujuna Oil Corporation Ltd. has been permitted to establish a captive port to handle crude and petroleum products from its proposed oil refinery at Thiruchopuram in Cuddalore District
Silambimangalam Shipyard: Goodearth Shipbuilding Pvt Ltd plans to establish a captive shipbuilding yard in Cuddalore District. The Government of India has also notified this as a Customs Port. In-principle approval to establish a Single Super Phosphate Fertiliser Plant within the Silambimangalam Shipyard Port area has also been granted.
Parangipettai: IL&FS Limited has been granted in-principle approval to develop a captive port in Cuddalore District to handle coal for its proposed 4000 MW merchant power plant.
PY-03 Oil Field: This port, 50 km southeast of Cuddalore, is exclusively meant for loading onto ships crude oil being extracted from the oil wells at PY-03 Oil Field.
Kaveri: PEL Power Limited has proposed establishing a jetty near Poompuhar in Nagapattinam District to handle coal for its 13,290 MW power plant.
Vanagiri: NSL Power Limited has proposed establishing a jetty near Sirkazhi in Nagapattinam District to handle coal for its 1500 MW power plant. A proposal for Customs Notification of this port has been sent to the Government of India.
Thirukkadaiyur: PPN Power Generating Company handles naphtha and natural gas through this port, for its 330 MW gas combined Cycle Power Project at Pillaiperumalnallur near Thirukkadaiyur in Nagapattinam District. The port has been extended to accommodate the landfill of gas pipelines of Hindustan Oil Exploration Company Ltd.
Thirukkuvalai: Tridem Port and Power Company Private Limited has proposed establishing a port near Vettaikkaran Iruppu in Nagapattinam District to handle coal required for its proposed 2000 MW merchant power plant.
Punnakkayal: This port in Tuticorin District was declared a captive facility for the use of DCW Limited to handle Vinyl Chloride Monomer, Low Sulphur Heavy Stock, Liquified Petroleum Gas etc. The company recently conveyed its decision not to develop the captive port facilities and the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board is on the look-out for a prospective port developer.
Manappad: The Government has declared Manappad in Tuticorin District as a Minor Port to handle LNG for the proposed 2000 MW gas turbine power project to be set up by Indian Power Project Ltd. at Vembar.
Koodankulam: This port in Tirunelveli District is for the captive use of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. for its proposed nuclear power project at Koodankulam consisting of two units of 2000 MW each.
Ports under process
(yet to be declared)
Panaiyur: Coastal Tamil Power Limited has been granted an in-principle approval for developing a captive port at Panaiyur, near Cheyyur, in Kancheepuram District to handle coal required for its proposed 4000 MW ultra mega power project.
Udangudi: Udangudi Power Corporation Limited, Chennai, has been granted in-principle approval for establishing an open sea jetty to receive coal for its 1600 MW Udangudi super critical thermal power project.
Footnote:The waterfront area at Sathakonvalasai in Ramanathapuram District has been allotted to Kushi Beach, Ramanathapuram, on annual licence basis to conduct water sports activities. (Courtesy: TCC Digest).
Few know that Belgium and India have had historic connections dating to the 18th Century.
The 'mark' of the Ostend-East India Co.
Aware of the success of the British, Dutch and French East India Companies, the merchants in Ostend, even now a flourishing port in Belgium, approached Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia and Hungary who had become the ruler of Belgium in 1713, to grant them permission to set up a private company and establish direct commercial relations with India.
Charles VI granted charters to private merchants from Antwerp, Ghent and Ostend for the India trade, and the merchants chose Surat on the west coast of India and the Bay of Bengal and the Hooghly river on the east as their destinations. Accordingly, two vessels set sail for India in 1715, the Saint Mathieu to Surat and the Prince Eugene to the Bay of Bengal. The owner of the vessels was a former Mayor of Ostend, Thomas Roy. “The vessels were welcomed by the local population who were seeking allies to protect them against the Dutch and English colonisers.” The vessels returned to Ostend laden with exotic goods and Thomas Roy and his partners made a fortune. The Ostend India Company was happy.
The success of the first expedition encouraged Charles VI and he gave Godefroid de la Marveille, a young captain who had served with the French East India Company, the command of the ship Charles VI and entrusted him with the delicate task of establishing a factory and getting a territorial licence in the subcontinent.
On the arrival of the ship in the Danish port of Tranquebar, the Dutch and the English forbade their merchants to have any contact with de la Marveille and his crew. They even threatened the Danish Governor and deputed a delegation to Nawab Sadat-Ullah Khan, the Governor of the Carnatic, charging Charles VI with being an opponent of the religious faiths of the land and de la Marveille with being a dishonest trader. Nevertheless, de la Marveille was well received by an ambassador of the Nawab and permission was granted for a factory to be opened at Cabelon (Covelong). The trading post was opened on August 13, 1719 with de la Marveille as its first Commander. It soon became an important town with an influx of inhabitants producing linen cloth.
Between 1715 and 1723, 34 ships sailed from Ostend to China, the Malabar and Coromandel coasts, Surat and Bengal. The expeditions were financed by different international syndicates – Flemish, English, Dutch and French. The mutual rivalry among them resulted in the Belgian merchants drawing the attention of Charles VI to the losses they had suffered because of the conflict of interests and requested him to allow them to create their own company. And Charles VI decided finally to charter the Ostend-East India Company in December 1722. The capital of the company was fixed at 6 million guilders, composed of 6000 shares of 1000 guilders each. It was mainly provided by the businessmen of Antwerp and Ghent.
Charles VI entrusted General Jacques-André Cobbé with the task of establishing a trading post in the Bay of Bengal. Two Englishmen who already knew the region would accompany him. They were Alexandre Hume, who represented the merchants’ interests, and John Harrison the captain of the vessel. The Emperor gave them the mandate to negotiate with the Nawab Murshid Quli Jafar Khan for territory. The ship Charles VI left Ostend on January 8, 1723. After a short stop in Cabelon, where Cobbé was received with a warm welcome, the vessel carried on to reach the mouth of the Ganges on July 1, 1723. The French Governor of Chandernagore welcomed the General and his crew. A few days later, they were able to rent a place in the abandoned Danish factory of Danemarnagor.
The English and the Dutch offered money to the Nawab to turn down the request of the Belgians for the Banquibazar concession. However, on November 23, 1723, the paravanah was finally in the hands of General Cobbé!
The ships of the Ostend Company brought into India silver, lead, weapons, and linen manufactured in Belgium. When Corneille de Winter returned to Belgium with the Charles VI in 1726, it was loaded with 84,839 pieces of muslin, 7,990 pieces of silk, 120,543 pounds of saltpetre and some rare timber.
The Concession of Banquibazar-Hydsiapur was finally transferred to the Belgians on July 11, 1727, after many years of confusion. The Company got a paravanah from Murshid Kuli Jafar Khan and established the factory at Banquibazar, fortifying it with six cannons. A payment of 50,000 rupees was made to the Nawab in 1727 for the paravanah. Many other payments were made to the Nawab and his henchmen later, so much so that Banquibazar cost the Ostenders 100,000 rupees. But the Nawab also gave them an additional settlement at Cassimbazar, 12 km from Murshidabad, the then capital of Bengal.
Banquibazar was 20 km from the English in Calcutta, 6 km from the French in Chandernagore, and 8 km from the Dutch in Chinsura. Warehouses, houses for the employees of the Company and its soldiers as well as a church were constructed. The Company was managed by a Governor and a Council. There was also a Court of Justice.
The factory at Cassimbazar was also managed by a Council. It exclusively handled the production of silk. Cassimbazar became a model township. “The layout of the streets seems to be in accordance with the highest standards of town planning and hygiene. The Belgians employed nearly two thousand local workers at the spinning mill and to weave silk in the factory. A law enacted by the Belgian Government stated that the Europeans and other Christians of the dependency who were either on the payrolls of the company or enjoyed its protection were prohibited from employing any free Bengali or Moor, either girl or boy, who had not yet attained the age of twelve, all infringements being liable to exemplary punishment.”
The profits accruing from the Ostend-India operations led to an economic boom and merchants from neighbouring countries were quick to gather at this port. The extraordinary success of the Ostend Company was a source of grave concern to England and Holland. Jealous, they forced the Emperor to put an end to what they considered a threat to their own trade.
In May 1727, the Charter of the Company was suspended for seven years. The second Treaty of Vienna in 1731 put an end to the Ostend Company’s activities. The very success of the Company was the cause of its sudden closure.
However, the Belgian factory in Banquibazaar could be maintained after the second Treaty of Vienna which killed the Belgian Company thanks to some employees of the Dutch, English and French Companies who undermined the activities of their own organisations and joined hands with Francois de Schonamille, the commander of the place from December 1730 to 1745, in the pursuit of private interests. He was apparently not aware that the Treaty of Vienna officially closed the factory. He died there in 1745 while defending the factory.
(Based on material from Belgian Heritage in India by Philippe Falisse, formerly of the Embassy of Belgium, New Delhi.)
Let’s face it. This is a city that takes itself very seriously. You can see it in the way people drive around, clutching a cell phone, talking into it all the time, taking time off only to abuse others on the road. You can also see it in the way parents push their children into ten thousand different activities – keyboard, classical music, dance, drums, mental arithmetic using the abacus, tennis, swimming – all in the absolute certainty that they have given birth to a David Brian, a M.S. Subbulakshmi, a Kumari Kamala, a Sivamani, a Srinivasa Ramanujan, a Federer and a Spitz – all rolled into one, of course.
You can see them walking up and down the length of the swimming pool forgetting that they cannot swim themselves, giving instructions to the poor child to now breathe, to now lift its arms, to kick its legs and now not to breathe, not to lift its arms and not to kick. As for academics, what is a child for if not to score that acme of Chennai perfection, the dreaded centum?
Centum is a word that is hardly heard outside our city. But then so are so many other words used here. Have you ever reflected on how most words in Madras bhashai are actually not from Tamil? Thus you have naina, dubbu, duddu and dindu which are from Telugu, Peter, Mary, assault, regent (actually decent) and feed (speed) which are from the Queen’s own language, and bejaar and galeej which are from Urdu. And what about kasmaalam which is actually from Sanskrit? We also have phrases from Hindi but they are crudely anatomical and no respectable journal can publish such things.
But to get back to the centum and its awful consequences. Somewhere along the line, most parents realise that their child will have to drop all its extra-curricular activities and focus on the centum. And having achieved that, the child is shipped out to foreign lands. It becomes an NRI. And the parent becomes an IAS or an IA&AS. The former stands for Indian Ayah Service and the latter for Indian Ayah & Aduppumadai (kitchen) Service, for which the parent is invited each summer to overseas lands to take care of the grandchildren during summer vacation, cook meals and also fill the deep freeze before leaving. While there, the parents acquire sneakers and ten-dollar T Shirts with slogans like “I am hot” or “TCP/IP certified” and come back home to don them each morning for walks. And the conversation during these walks invariably centres on “my son who is in Dubai (wherever that is) or my daughter in Sunnyvale.”
The children come back once in a while too – especially at this time of the year – and you can spot them a mile off. Not just by their sneakers and ubiquitous water-bottle but also because of the time warp in which they are when it comes to India. To them Chennai is still Madras, with Safire theatre, Woodlands Driver-In and An Adyar bird-watching. Their idea of cost of living has also rather unfortunately remained the same and so when they go shopping, what with their tendency to multiply/divide every price tag into their home currencies, they buy very little.
The brain-drain that sent these people away has also caused problems for Chennai’s bungalows. These vast houses, with huge gardens, plenty of rooms (but hardly any bedrooms) and one toilet, were meant for families of twenty and more and a domestic staff of like strength. Most residences like these also had the unmarried/slightly dim-witted poor cousin (ammanji/atthan) who was general dogsbody. He worked the water-pump, did the shopping, tended to the sick and looked after grandmother when she had her spells. But over the years everyone migrated. As for dim-witted cousin, his children too have moved on and he now lives in a swank gated-community with an outlandish name like Abhirami Beverly or Alamelu Regency. And he looks down on you for still clinging on to your crumbling bungalow. And you are forced to clean your own water tank, though you have vertigo. And when you go out, you have to make sure that you have locked all the windows and doors and switched off the water pump, or have you? Doubts begin assailing you halfway through the movie or the concert and so it is time to go home and check.
Then one day, the old bungalow is flattened and a multi-storeyed block of flats comes up in its place. No more closing of multiple windows or worrying about the leak from the back verandah. But before you know it, a fly-over comes up just next to the third floor window. Through it, commuters can look in to see what is cooking for the day, who is using a size 36 brief, and how often the interior of your flat is dusted. Very few, however, are bothered. They are speaking seriously into their phones, even as they drive on, pausing only to abuse others. But that is where we started, wasn’t it? – (Courtesy – Matrix, journal of The Sanmar Group).
Forming an Indian Merchant Marine was not an easy task. In fact, the process of forming, training and deploying the Indian Merchant Marine faced considerable difficulties.
In its first session of the reformed Central Legislative Assembly, Sir P.S. Sivaswamy Aiyar moved a resolution on January 12, 1922 to constitute a committee to explore the possibilities of creating a training process for Indian Merchant Navy officers. Of the five points in the resolution, one dealt with training facilities for Indian Merchant Marine. It provided for the recruitment of Indians as Deck or Executive Officers and Engineers in the marine service and establishment of a nautical college.
Sir P.S. Sivaswami Aiyar.
The Government took a year before acting on the resolution. The Indian Mercantile Marine Committee was formed on February 3, 1923, headed by Captain E.J. Headlam, Director of the Royal Indian Marine. It had five members, Indian interests being represented by Lalubhai Samaldas of the Scindias and Jadhunath Roy of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce.
The report was submitted in March 1924. Its recommendations included the establishment of a training school for Engine and Deck Officers by converting a troop ship into a training ship. This was the first attempt in colonial India to train Indian Merchant Navy officers. But the Government was reluctant to put this into practice. The recommendations went into cold storage and it was again P.S. Sivaswamy Aiyar who took up the issue by moving another resolution in the Assembly on March 19, 1926. This resolution had, besides training, other matters concerning the Indian merchant fleet.
The Commerce member, Sir Charles Innes, was against those points in the resolution talking about the merchant marine but was sympathetic towards training. But, he wondered, “Would the right boys from the right classes come for training in this hard line?” He, however, finally recommended the training of Deck Officers.
The result was the establishment of the Training Ship Dufferin in December 1927 under the command of Captain Digby Beste. 77 boys were recruited and the doubts of the British that sufficient number of Indians would not join were proved wrong.
But the negative attitude towards employing Indian officers continued and, by 1936, only 25 of the Dufferin cadets found employment in the British shipping companies in India. The only Indian company, Scindias, was not able to absorb many cadets, as it had only a few ships.
The Hindu editorially observed, “When for more than a generation India was pleading that she should be allowed to develop a strong merchant navy as a second line of defence nobody paid heed to this. Why, even after the war began, how consistently have vested interests for whom the British Government have a soft corner been blocking the efforts of Indian Industrialists to establish a shipping Industry. . .”
The credit for the training of Indian officers and engineers goes to the house of Scindias. It dedicated not only s.s. Iravady as a training ship but also Bahaduri as a shore establishment attached to its ship repair yard for the training of marine engineers.
All the efforts of Sir P.S. Sivaswamy Aiyar and the Scindias bore fruit fully only in 1950, when m.v. Jalagopal sailed into Singapore harbour with a 100 per cent complement of Indian officers, engineers and crew members.
Today we have the Indian Maritime University, under the MOST, and another privately run Marine University in Chennai and several institutes teaching marine subjects. The pity is that not even one of the institutes remembers Sir P.S. Sivaswamy Aiyar. But for his resolutions moved in the Central Assembly, the Indian Merchant Marine would not have been what it is today!
The Tamil Nadu Maritime Board was formed in 1997 under the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board Act 1995, to administer, control, regulate and manage the minor ports in Tamil Nadu. There are three major ports, namely Ennore, Chennai and Tuticorin, under the control of the Government of India, and 21 minor ports situated on the 1076 km-long coastline of Tamil Nadu. In addition, two minor ports are under consideration of the Government.
The State’s minor ports include seven government ports and 14 captive ports operated by private companies for thier own use.
Government Ports
Cuddalore: Chemplast Sanmar Limited has developed a Marine Terminal Facility (MTF) within Cuddalore Port limits to handle Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) required for the Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) factory in the SIPCOT Complex. And Cuddalore Powergen Corporation Limited has proposed setting up a jetty.
Nagapattinam: Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited has established a jetty to handle the products of its refinery and is handling cargo through the jetty.
Pamban: This port is situated on Rameswaram Island. Its only function is to pilot small-draft vessels passing through the Pamban Channel in the Gulf of Mannar.
Rameswaram: An in-principle approval has been granted for the running of a passenger ferry service for a short distance in the Agnitheertham area of Rameswaram. The Government of India and the Sri Lankan Government have proposed reviving the Indo-Sri Lankan ferry service, when this port would serve that service too.
Valinokkam: There is no activity at this port in the Ramanathapuram District.
Kanniyakumari: This port is solely meant for the Poompuhar Shipping Corporation Ltd.’s ferry service between the shore and Vivekanada Rock Memorial/Ayyan Thiruvalluvar statue.
Colachel: This port in Kanniyakumari District and very close to the international shipping lanes has been identified as a suitable port for developing into a container tran-shipment hub port.
Captive Ports
Kattupalli: This port, near Ennore, has been extended for the establishing of a shipyard-cum-minor port complex by L&T Shipbuilding Limited. A proposal to decalre Kattupalli as a Sea Customs port is under consideration. Construction of the North breakwater upto 400 m and South breakwater upto 600 m has been completed.
Ennore Minor Port: The port, comprising the marine structures of a Multiple Buoy Mooring System with submarine pipeline to receive Liquid Ammonia, has been developed by M/s. Coromandel International Ltd., Chennai
Mugaiyur: Marg Swarnabhoomi Port Private Limited has proposed developing a ship repair facility here.
Thiruchopuram: Nagarujuna Oil Corporation Ltd. has been permitted to establish a captive port to handle crude and petroleum products from its proposed oil refinery at Thiruchopuram in Cuddalore District
Silambimangalam Shipyard: Goodearth Shipbuilding Pvt Ltd plans to establish a captive shipbuilding yard in Cuddalore District. The Government of India has also notified this as a Customs Port. In-principle approval to establish a Single Super Phosphate Fertiliser Plant within the Silambimangalam Shipyard Port area has also been granted.
Parangipettai: IL&FS Limited has been granted in-principle approval to develop a captive port in Cuddalore District to handle coal for its proposed 4000 MW merchant power plant.
PY-03 Oil Field: This port, 50 km southeast of Cuddalore, is exclusively meant for loading onto ships crude oil being extracted from the oil wells at PY-03 Oil Field.
Kaveri: PEL Power Limited has proposed establishing a jetty near Poompuhar in Nagapattinam District to handle coal for its 13,290 MW power plant.
Vanagiri: NSL Power Limited has proposed establishing a jetty near Sirkazhi in Nagapattinam District to handle coal for its 1500 MW power plant. A proposal for Customs Notification of this port has been sent to the Government of India.
Thirukkadaiyur: PPN Power Generating Company handles naphtha and natural gas through this port, for its 330 MW gas combined Cycle Power Project at Pillaiperumalnallur near Thirukkadaiyur in Nagapattinam District. The port has been extended to accommodate the landfill of gas pipelines of Hindustan Oil Exploration Company Ltd.
Thirukkuvalai: Tridem Port and Power Company Private Limited has proposed establishing a port near Vettaikkaran Iruppu in Nagapattinam District to handle coal required for its proposed 2000 MW merchant power plant.
Punnakkayal: This port in Tuticorin District was declared a captive facility for the use of DCW Limited to handle Vinyl Chloride Monomer, Low Sulphur Heavy Stock, Liquified Petroleum Gas etc. The company recently conveyed its decision not to develop the captive port facilities and the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board is on the look-out for a prospective port developer.
Manappad: The Government has declared Manappad in Tuticorin District as a Minor Port to handle LNG for the proposed 2000 MW gas turbine power project to be set up by Indian Power Project Ltd. at Vembar.
Koodankulam: This port in Tirunelveli District is for the captive use of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. for its proposed nuclear power project at Koodankulam consisting of two units of 2000 MW each.
Ports under process
(yet to be declared)
Panaiyur: Coastal Tamil Power Limited has been granted an in-principle approval for developing a captive port at Panaiyur, near Cheyyur, in Kancheepuram District to handle coal required for its proposed 4000 MW ultra mega power project.
Udangudi: Udangudi Power Corporation Limited, Chennai, has been granted in-principle approval for establishing an open sea jetty to receive coal for its 1600 MW Udangudi super critical thermal power project.
Footnote:The waterfront area at Sathakonvalasai in Ramanathapuram District has been allotted to Kushi Beach, Ramanathapuram, on annual licence basis to conduct water sports activities. (Courtesy: TCC Digest).
Few know that Belgium and India have had historic connections dating to the 18th Century.
The 'mark' of the Ostend-East India Co.
Aware of the success of the British, Dutch and French East India Companies, the merchants in Ostend, even now a flourishing port in Belgium, approached Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia and Hungary who had become the ruler of Belgium in 1713, to grant them permission to set up a private company and establish direct commercial relations with India.
Charles VI granted charters to private merchants from Antwerp, Ghent and Ostend for the India trade, and the merchants chose Surat on the west coast of India and the Bay of Bengal and the Hooghly river on the east as their destinations. Accordingly, two vessels set sail for India in 1715, the Saint Mathieu to Surat and the Prince Eugene to the Bay of Bengal. The owner of the vessels was a former Mayor of Ostend, Thomas Roy. “The vessels were welcomed by the local population who were seeking allies to protect them against the Dutch and English colonisers.” The vessels returned to Ostend laden with exotic goods and Thomas Roy and his partners made a fortune. The Ostend India Company was happy.
The success of the first expedition encouraged Charles VI and he gave Godefroid de la Marveille, a young captain who had served with the French East India Company, the command of the ship Charles VI and entrusted him with the delicate task of establishing a factory and getting a territorial licence in the subcontinent.
On the arrival of the ship in the Danish port of Tranquebar, the Dutch and the English forbade their merchants to have any contact with de la Marveille and his crew. They even threatened the Danish Governor and deputed a delegation to Nawab Sadat-Ullah Khan, the Governor of the Carnatic, charging Charles VI with being an opponent of the religious faiths of the land and de la Marveille with being a dishonest trader. Nevertheless, de la Marveille was well received by an ambassador of the Nawab and permission was granted for a factory to be opened at Cabelon (Covelong). The trading post was opened on August 13, 1719 with de la Marveille as its first Commander. It soon became an important town with an influx of inhabitants producing linen cloth.
Between 1715 and 1723, 34 ships sailed from Ostend to China, the Malabar and Coromandel coasts, Surat and Bengal. The expeditions were financed by different international syndicates – Flemish, English, Dutch and French. The mutual rivalry among them resulted in the Belgian merchants drawing the attention of Charles VI to the losses they had suffered because of the conflict of interests and requested him to allow them to create their own company. And Charles VI decided finally to charter the Ostend-East India Company in December 1722. The capital of the company was fixed at 6 million guilders, composed of 6000 shares of 1000 guilders each. It was mainly provided by the businessmen of Antwerp and Ghent.
Charles VI entrusted General Jacques-André Cobbé with the task of establishing a trading post in the Bay of Bengal. Two Englishmen who already knew the region would accompany him. They were Alexandre Hume, who represented the merchants’ interests, and John Harrison the captain of the vessel. The Emperor gave them the mandate to negotiate with the Nawab Murshid Quli Jafar Khan for territory. The ship Charles VI left Ostend on January 8, 1723. After a short stop in Cabelon, where Cobbé was received with a warm welcome, the vessel carried on to reach the mouth of the Ganges on July 1, 1723. The French Governor of Chandernagore welcomed the General and his crew. A few days later, they were able to rent a place in the abandoned Danish factory of Danemarnagor.
The English and the Dutch offered money to the Nawab to turn down the request of the Belgians for the Banquibazar concession. However, on November 23, 1723, the paravanah was finally in the hands of General Cobbé!
The ships of the Ostend Company brought into India silver, lead, weapons, and linen manufactured in Belgium. When Corneille de Winter returned to Belgium with the Charles VI in 1726, it was loaded with 84,839 pieces of muslin, 7,990 pieces of silk, 120,543 pounds of saltpetre and some rare timber.
The Concession of Banquibazar-Hydsiapur was finally transferred to the Belgians on July 11, 1727, after many years of confusion. The Company got a paravanah from Murshid Kuli Jafar Khan and established the factory at Banquibazar, fortifying it with six cannons. A payment of 50,000 rupees was made to the Nawab in 1727 for the paravanah. Many other payments were made to the Nawab and his henchmen later, so much so that Banquibazar cost the Ostenders 100,000 rupees. But the Nawab also gave them an additional settlement at Cassimbazar, 12 km from Murshidabad, the then capital of Bengal.
Banquibazar was 20 km from the English in Calcutta, 6 km from the French in Chandernagore, and 8 km from the Dutch in Chinsura. Warehouses, houses for the employees of the Company and its soldiers as well as a church were constructed. The Company was managed by a Governor and a Council. There was also a Court of Justice.
The factory at Cassimbazar was also managed by a Council. It exclusively handled the production of silk. Cassimbazar became a model township. “The layout of the streets seems to be in accordance with the highest standards of town planning and hygiene. The Belgians employed nearly two thousand local workers at the spinning mill and to weave silk in the factory. A law enacted by the Belgian Government stated that the Europeans and other Christians of the dependency who were either on the payrolls of the company or enjoyed its protection were prohibited from employing any free Bengali or Moor, either girl or boy, who had not yet attained the age of twelve, all infringements being liable to exemplary punishment.”
The profits accruing from the Ostend-India operations led to an economic boom and merchants from neighbouring countries were quick to gather at this port. The extraordinary success of the Ostend Company was a source of grave concern to England and Holland. Jealous, they forced the Emperor to put an end to what they considered a threat to their own trade.
In May 1727, the Charter of the Company was suspended for seven years. The second Treaty of Vienna in 1731 put an end to the Ostend Company’s activities. The very success of the Company was the cause of its sudden closure.
However, the Belgian factory in Banquibazaar could be maintained after the second Treaty of Vienna which killed the Belgian Company thanks to some employees of the Dutch, English and French Companies who undermined the activities of their own organisations and joined hands with Francois de Schonamille, the commander of the place from December 1730 to 1745, in the pursuit of private interests. He was apparently not aware that the Treaty of Vienna officially closed the factory. He died there in 1745 while defending the factory.
(Based on material from Belgian Heritage in India by Philippe Falisse, formerly of the Embassy of Belgium, New Delhi.)
The India Gate in Delhi, a memorial to the soldiers who died in World War I and during the Northwest Frontier operations, is a replica of the main gate in the Belgian town of Leper, which is dedicated to the Allied soldiers, including 4217 Indian soldiers, who died during the same war in Belgium. And the Calcutta High Court’s architecture is based on the Leper Cloth Hall in Belgium. It is also stated that the imposing column in the Rashtrapati Bhavan compound is modelled on a column near the Palace of Justice in Brussels.
The battle of Waterloo was fought next-door to Brussels and is commemorated in different ways, including museums in the buildings where Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington stayed during the last two or three days of the famous battle. The Duke, as Arthur Wellesley, was stationed in Madras, and participated in the Fourth Mysore War and in the Deccan campaigns which were responsible for his reputation.
During my two stints in Brussels, there were several signboards in the city showing the direction to Aix-la-Chapelle/Aachen (the German city nearest to Brussels was a part of France earlier and had the name Aix-la-Chapelle). I used to tell visitors from India that it was the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle which changed the fate of Madras and, indeed, India. During my recent visit to Belgium I noticed that these boards were missing in the city.
