Kandla The Gateway of North West India (Geography Research Paper Series No-6) (An Old & Rare Book)

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The Monograph is the sixth in the Research Paper Series and the seventh monograph of the Department of Geography and is the outcome of a field survey conducted during the years 1968 to 1971 in Kandla in addition to library work and discussions in various Ministries, offices and libraries in Delhi. Kandla was designed to be the Sea Gate of North Western India, a successor to Karachi after independence. Chapter I details the circumstances which demanded the creation of a new Major Port, the claims of Kandla and the reasons for its choice by the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Committee. Comments are made on the validity of the choice. Kandla has a fine harbour, situated in a Creek and sheltered from the monsoons. Its tides are rather high but not dangerous to navigation. The physical defect of Kandla lies not so much in the harbour as in the approach Channels. The bar at the mouth is a hindrance to navigation. The navigation channel is suceptible to frequent shifting. The approximate quantity of silt required to be dredged to maintain the Channel upto a depth of 14 feet over the bar is 1.60 million tonnes annually. Chapter II and a series of maps explain the 'vagaries of the channel which can be controlled only at a price, unsuited to the economic maintenance of the Port. The Port of Kandla, on the other hand, has several up-to-date facilities, some which even Bombay cannot claim. The man-made facilities of the port have become too costly to maintain as the port does not support itself through its traffic. Chapter III gives the details of these facilities, not only at the port but also its township, Gandhidham. The fact that a multi-agency system operates in the port and town has somewhat minimised the advantages of "low priced land" in the vicinity of Kandla, one of the main claims put out by the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Committee for the choice of Kandla as a Major Port on the West Coast. Kandla has an unbalanced trade (Chapter IV) but so have even the "Big Three" of the Major Ports. The few Major Ports that register an excess of exports over imports are Vizakpatnam, Pardeep and Marmagao and to some extent Tuticurin and Mangalore which are commissioned to be Major Ports. This reflects the poverty of economy of the country and not the poverty of a particular port. Even the ports which show a favourable balance of trade are not thriving on a balanced economy of an industrially and agriculturally developed hinter land with surpluses for export but on the export of ores in the raw, by agreement and collaboration with foreign governments like those of Japan and U.S.A. It is hardly a trade worthy of a developing sovereign State. The main defects of Kandla are its isolation from, and the lack of economic development of, its hinterland. A port, if it is to be a success, must be planned to become the nerve centre of an economically prosperous region, a region from where flows surpluses from farms and But Kandla factories, that it demands the facilities of an outlet or gateway to the international market. Normally in a world of free enterprise it is the regional forces that create the outlet. has been developed in the hope that the mere provision of a port will vitalise the country round it into economic activity. In a planned economy, it is possible to create this regional dynamism provided the planners understand the relation between port and hinterland as a regional whole. This has been neglected in the case of Kandla. Chapter V gives the transport links of Kandla with its proposed Hinterland. The metregauge line between Radhanpur and Deesa which connects Kandla with the metregauge network of North-West India was completed only in 1959. The Kandla- Jhund broadgauge railway connecting Kandla with Ahmedabad and the broadgauge network of Bombay, was completed in 1969-70 and the National Highway parallel to it in 1971. For the rest, the National Highways, State Highways, District and Village roads have poor surfaces, single lane width, bottlenecks and missing bridges. Different gauges, consequent break of bulk, lack of adequate road carriers and trucks and the system of private agents operating the transport of cargo, have all enhanced the competitive capacity of Bombay and Bhavnagar over Kandla. Added to these are clashes between Central and State interests and State vs State rivalries. Geographical proximity of Kandla to the North-West, another reason put out by the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Committee, for the choice of Kandla as a Major Port, is grossly outweighed by the economic proximity of Bombay and some other ports on the Gujarat Coast. Transport links alone, however, cannot put Kandla on its feet. The economic development of the hinterland must also form part of the plan for Kandla.

Economically most of the region of north Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir are backward. Punjab has a surplus of food and ginned cotton but prefers to use Bombay. Most of the trade of this region is oriented towards Delhi and a home market and it has nothing much for an export trade except ores and stones in the raw and some luxury articles with a worldwide fame but produced still on uneconomic, non-competitive basis. To change this pattern requires concerted and co-ordinated effort which is still to come. Kandla also suffers from lack of services, such as customs clearance agents, shipping agents, forwarders, repair workers, adequate and quick banking services, social amenities, educational facilities etc. Cheap land alone cannot produce a township and port. If that were true the deserts of the world would not have been empty. To overcome some of the difficulties of Kandla two projects are undertaken, namely the Kandla Free Trade Zone (Chapter VI) and the Tughlakabad Dry Port in Delhi. Free Trade Zones are a prelude to Free Trade. They cannot be established as Industrial Estates just to make use of the unused or underused capacity of a Port. The fundamental policies of the country, whether it requires Free Trade or Protectionism, whether smuggling and foreign control can be efficiently checked by our Government machinery, whether the establishment of a Free Trade Zone in one port will not give rise to demands from other and more prosperous ports for similar facilities, all these had to be resolved before the Free Trade Zone was established in an isolated part of India. The products of the Free Trade Zone are 100% export oriented. But manufacturers do not find a stable market outside the country. India has a large domestic market. Manufacturers in the Kandla Free Trade Zone seem to be under the impression that it is an area where raw material can be imported free of Customs Duty and several other controls and the products can find their way to the Indian market. If they are not under this misconcep tion, they feel that once they make a beginning the Government can be forced to compromise. Hence the clamour that they should be allowed to sell "wastage" and "substandard products" in India.

No big industrialists have been attracted to the Zone. Services which might have come with the movement of big industries have not followed the trail of small uneconomic units. The products of the Zone cannot compete in the world market. Even goods meant for the Free Trade Zone have to make a circuitous route through Bombay and thence by road or rail or coastal shipways not having the adequate facilities of insurance cover. The cost of production is therefore quite high. The Dry Port at Delhi is designed to make things easier for the willing exporter. All port formalities are to be gone through at Delhi to make up for the inadequate services at Kandla. The project is delayed because the Government cannot decide whether it should be under Private Control, Government Control or under an Autonomous Body. In a Mixed Economy, the resolution of it in any manner is going to create more problems than solve them. Kandla is a victim of State Centre clashes, lack of a goal in planning, inadequate economic development of the country as a whole, inadequate transport and high cost of maintenance. All chapters are accompanied by maps. Graphs supplement the traffic data given in Chapter IV and the geographic distances of Kandla with its hinterland.

**Contents and Sample Pages**