Dredging problems

West Bengal and the Northeast need a deepwater port

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Calcutta, as it then was, was founded as a port city by an empire built on trade in the high seas. Yet today's Kolkata port, now run as the renamed Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, is a logistical nightmare. Some of this is due to factors beyond its control; the geomorphological characteristics of the delta are unfavourable. Kolkata never had a very deep "draught" — the depth of the channel that can accommodate ships — but it has reduced from 9 metres to 7 metres over time due to silting. Large ocean-going container ships cannot navigate up from the mouth of the river to where Kolkata sits, 135 kilometres upriver. The "Panamax" draught, defined for tankers that can fit into the legacy Panama Canal infrastructure, is usually above 12 metres.