Digest>Archives> July 1998

History of the Department of Lighthouses

By Shri K. V. Mohan Rao

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Director General, India Lighthouses

Originally published in the January 1990, edition of Lighthouse News, a publication of the Director General of Lighthouses and Lightships of India.

The system of Lighthouse Administration in India till 1927, as in some other countries, had grown in a haphazard sort of way as necessities arose. The result had been a series of local arrangements with varying methods of administration and finance, operating independently of one another, without any coordinating scheme or control. The defects of the system were, therefore, both administrative and financial. Lighthouse engineering a developing science was rapidly advancing and modern developments were directed towards increased efficiency and economy. The local governments and local administrations which were till then responsible for a section of the coast, could not individually afford the necessary technical staff. Again, with greater range of lights and signals, and the greater speed of ships, the lighting of a coast could no longer be treated in local compartments, but had to be conceived as a whole so that adjacent lights did not clash. Each station had to have its appropriate and distinctive place in a single system for the protection of the coastline. The lighting of the coast had become a matter in which shipping and commercial interests were primarily concerned, and the coasts of India had to be made as safe as possible for the ships trading to and from Indian Ports and along the coasts.

As a first step to centralize the administration of Lighthouses in India, the Indian Lighthouse Act was passed in 1927, which came into force in April 1929 when the administration of Lighthouses in India was centralized.

To centralize the administration of Lighthouses in India, the then government of India secured the services of an experienced Lighthouse Engineer, Mr. D. Alan Stevenson, of the Trinity House (which administers the Lighthouses in the U.K.), to assist in the reorganization of Indian Lighthouses. This officer visited every lighthouse on the coasts of India (including Burma, which then formed part of India) and after studying the conditions then prevailing and collecting the detailed data, he submitted a comprehensive report and made certain recommendations to the government of India.

The coastline of India was initially (before partition) divided into the following six districts to administer and maintain about 32 general Lighthouses and each district was placed under the charge of a Superintendent of Lighthouses (since redesignated as Director of Lighthouses & Lightships).

1) Aden; 2) Karachi; 3) Bombay; 4) Madras; 5) Calcutta; 6) Rangoon;

The initial constitution of the Lighthouse Department, which was created in 1929, started with only a skeleton staff of part time administrative officers as Superintendents of Lighthouses at the headquarters of the MM districts and an advisor to the government of India at Headquarters designated as Chief Inspector of Lighthouses ( redesignated as Director General of Lighthouses & Lightships). This constitution was not adequate for anything more than exercising disciplinary control over the General Lighthouses Personnel and advising government on lighthouse problems and some constructions. The government of India also started levying on every ship arriving at or departing from any port in India, lightdues for financing the expenditures on lighthouses.

After passing of the Government of India Act, 1935, the administration of Lighthouses in the Aden District was transferred to his Majesty'sgGovernment in the U.K. The government of India, however, continued to administer the Lighthouses in the Persian Gulf, which were financed from the Persian Gulf Lighting Service fund, with the help of an Advisory Committee constituted for the purpose.

Although, as a result of the reforms introduced 1935, the province of Burma was separated from the rest of India, the government of India continued to administer the General Lighthouses in Burma even after 1935, under the terms of an Unitary agreement entered into between the Government of India and Burma.

During the war years from 1939, the activities of the Lighthouse Department had to be very limited for various reasons, especially as several Lighthouses had to be doused in order to prevent the enemy from making use of them. Immediately after the war was over, the rehabilitation of lighthouses in Burma was undertaken as machinery, lanterns, optical apparatus, buildings, jetties, etc. had been destroyed by the Japanese during the war.

As a result of the partition of the country in 1947, the lighthouses in Karachi District and South Patches lightvessel in the Calcutta District went over to Pakistan. Burma also became an independent country and the government of Burma decided to terminate the unitary arrangement and administer and manage the lights in that country themselves.

After India became a Republic, the numerous princely states acceded to India, and with their consequent merger with the Indian Union, the responsibility for the administration of Lighthouses in those states devolved on the government of India. Due to the constitutional changes and the Federal Financial Integration of the states, a coastline of 920 miles with over 50 Lighthouses formerly within jurisdiction of the maritime princely states also became the direct responsibility of the Central Lighthouse Department in 1950. The numerous and fast growing activities of the Lighthouse Department especially after the end of the World War II, made it necessary that the department should be recognized and suitably expanded so as to cope efficiently with its responsibilities. The reorganization of the department took place in 1953.

This story appeared in the July 1998 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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