Porbandar Lighthouse

Porbandar, the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi is connected to BG Rail network. There are direct trains from here to Delhi, Mumbai and Howrah.National Highway No.8–B extends up to the city. Porbandar finds its reference in history as ‘Porvelakul’ in 889 AD during the rule of Ranak Bashkaldev. The town acquired its present name from the temple of ‘Porav mata’ established in 8th century. Rana Sartanji occupied the region in 1686 AD and built the fort of Porbandar. He established the state of Porbandar and developed the port here. The sailing vessels from Porbandar sailed to Bombay, Malabar, Ceylon (Srilanka), South-east Asia and China.Mid 19th century saw the introduction of steamers on the Indian coast. And steamers also started touching ports of Mangalore, Bombay, Porbandar and Karachi. In the year 1921 the British India Steam avigation Co introduced a passenger cum cargo steamer service between Porbandar and East Africa which was discontinued in 1939 due to the out break of World War-II. Later on M/s Scindia Steam Navigation Co took over the services plying between Porbandar, Karachi and Bombay, touching various other ports of Kathiavar Saurastha and continued till early 1960s. Incidentally the founders of Indian Maritime carriers (M/s Scindia Steam Navigation Co) Mr Morarji Gokuldas and Mrs Sumati Morarji belonged to Porbandar. During the early existence of the port there wasn’t any systematic aid to navigation provided to guide the vessels to port except that a staff was erected at the entrance of the creek to hoist flags as and when vessels were expected to arrive. Later on a tall mast with facility of hoisting an oil lamp was provided during early 19thcentury.

A circular sand stone masonry tower 24 m in height was constructed on the sea face of the town in 1875-76 and an oil wick lamp was placed on it. The lighthouse with fixed character became operational in April 1876. In order to improve the range a fourth order dioptric optic was introduced in 1887 but it continued as fixed light. In 1930s electric street lights were introduced in Porbandar. The Masters (of vessels) complained that due to glare of street lights it was not possible to pick up the lighthouse light from a distance on sea as such they experienced difficulty in taking bearings. Therefore it became necessary to replace the oil lamp by a powerful revolving light. During those days the revolving optical equipments for lighthouse were manufactured to order by M/s Chance Bros, Birmingham. Besides being very costly, the supply consumed enormous time running into years. A local craftsman of M/s. Gajjar Watch Co. offered to devise and manufacture indigenous revolving equipment. Then ruler of Porbandar state Rana Natwarsinh accepted the offer so as to encourage the indigenous craftsmanship. The equipment was designed and manufactured in 1935-36. It constituted three powerful reflectors each fitted with 100W incandescent lamp, placed equidistant at 120 degrees and connected to revolving mechanism at centre. The assembly was driven and revolved by an electric motor. A special lantern-house was also manufactured for housing the equipment. On completion of trials the new lighthouse equipment was commissioned in to service on the 20th December 1936. It gave flash every 5 Seconds. This was the most powerful Lighthouse on Kathiawar (Saurashtra) coast during those ays. The state powerhouse supplied electricity to the Lighthouse. The same equipment and system worked for more than 44 years It is still functional and now forms the part of Lighthouse museum, Jamnagar. During 1979-80 the construction of a new 41m high RCC Lighthouse Tower at a site 4 km East from the old lighthouse was taken up and completed in 1983. The PRB-21 equipment supplied by M/s Asia Navigation Aids, New Delhi was installed and commissioned on 30th November 1985. Subsequently a ‘Racon’ (MACE origin) was added on 19th November 1988 which was replaced with ‘Tideland’ Racon in October 1997.