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One of the premier ports strategically situated on the West Coast of India. The opening of the Suez canal shifted the focus on this gateway to India as it was also situated midway to destinations in the Far East. With statistics like 18 % of oil traffic ,18 % of general cargo and 30 % of India's marine cargo, further its claims to one of most prominent Indian ports. Its modern dry & wet docks compliment its cargo handling facilities in making one of best natural ports of the world.
LOCATION
AND SALIENT FEATURES
The port is located almost midway (Latitude 18 deg 54' N. Longitude 72 deg 49' E ) on the west coast of India and is gifted with a natural deep water harbor of about 180 square kilometers protected by the mainland of the Konkan on its east and the island of Mumbai on its west. The deep waters in the harbor are well lighted with the Prongs Lighthouse visible 27 kilometers (and the Kennery Lighthouse) visible 29
Kms. The entrance of the harbor which has approaches from the south-west is between prongs Ref and the Thull Reef lying off the mainland to the south-east , a distance of about nine
kilometres.
The main navigational harbor channel is for the great part a natural deep-water fairway. The channel has been deepened to 10
metres. With a mean high water neap tide of 3.3 metres the channel is adequate to meet the requirements of a large number of cargo vessels ,Passenger ship and deep drafted tankers. With good lightning arrangements navigation is allowed at the port round the clock. VTMS is in operation now.
There are three enclosed wet docks namely Indira ,Prince's Victoria docks having a total water area of 46.30 hectares and a quayage of nearly 8000
metres. The Indira Dock has an entrance lock 228.6 metres long and 30.6 metres wide through which vessels can enter or leave the docks at any state of tide. There 22 berths inside the basin and 5 berths along the harbor wall with designed draft of 10.7 metres and 8.5 metres
respectively. The draft of berths inside the basin can be increased by 1.20 metres by impounding water by electric pumps. There are 13 berths with designed draft of 7.3 metres at Prince's dock and 13 berths at Victoria dock with designed draft of 7.9
metres.
For handling petroleum oil and products there are four jetties at Butcher Island and 2 at
pirpau. One of the jetties at Butcher Island (now christened as Jawahar Dweep ) which was commissioned in 1984 can handle tankers with maximum loaded draft of 12.7 metres corresponding to 80000 DWT with an inbuilt capacity to take tankers upto 1,50,000 DWT at a future date.Two of the
jetties can accommodate tankers upto 70,000 Displacement Tons. The Pir Pau jetty can
accommodate tankers of 170.7 m length .All jetties are connected to oil refineries by a network of
pipelines. A new jetty commissioned in December 1996 can handle tankers with a length of 197m and a draft 10.5 m for
chemical,
gas and products. Along the harbor front besides the wet docks a number of bunders and open wharves where traffic carried by sailing vessels is handled.
The port has two dry docks one inside the Indira docks which is 304 mtrs long and the other inside the Prince's dock,
the Merewether Dry Dock, which is 160 metres long.
NAVIGATIONAL
AIDS
1. Kennery Lighthouse which marks the southern boundry of the port limits is a light of the first order dioptric group flashing white and shows groups of two flashes with a visibility upto 25 Kms in clear weather. The name of this lighthouse has now been changed as Kanhoji Angre
LightHouse.
2. Prongs lighthouse marks a reef southwards from Colaba Point and dangerous ground which extends for a distance of 1.6 kms from it.The light is of the first order dioptric and exhibits at night every 10 seconds a white flash light with a visibility upto 27
kms.
3. There are three light buoys moored southeast of prongs lighthouse one flashing a green light every 10 seconds , the other flashing red light every 10 seconds. Prong reef buoy fitted with a radar
reflection.
4. About 3.2 kms ENE off Prongs lighthouse is the Sunk House Lighthouse . It is unattended and shows red light with white rays flashing every 6 seconds.
5. There are other important subsidiary lights including the Dolphin Rock light and Tucker Beacon Light.
6. Control station and port Signal station situated in the control room at the Ballard Pier monitor and controls all ships that move in the harbor. It also hoists storm warnings .These stations are also equipped with VHF Radio sets on international frequency ( channel 12, 14, & 16 )
7. 4 Nos lighted floating buoys to mark the approach channel , 2 jetty end Beacons at mooring dolphins 1 & 4 and 2 leading lights have been provided for right navigation . In addition the Elephanta patch beacon has been upgraded to improve its range.
8. Mumbai Port Harbor conforms to BA Chart 2624 & Indian Chart no 2015.
9. Radar controlled Vessel Traffic management System (VTMS) has been installed for safety of navigation in the harbor.
ANCHORAGE
There are 63 anchorage and two buoy moorings.
Pilotage in and out of the harbour is compulsory for ships of 200 tons nett and upwards , the pilotage limits outward being delimited by a line drawn east-west through the Prongs Lighthouse
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