Mumbai Port Trust

Mumbai Port Trust is a port which lies midway on the West coast of India, on the natural deep-water harbour of Mumbai, Maharashtra. The harbour spread over 400km2 is protected by the mainland of Konkan to its east and north and by the island city of Mumbai to its west. The harbour opens to the south to the Arabian Sea.The port is administered by the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT), an autonomous corporation wholly owned by the Government of India. The port is primarily used for bulk cargo, while most container traffic is directed to Nhava Sheva port across the harbour.HistoryMumbai Harbour has been used by ships and boats for centuries. It was used by the Maratha Navy, as well as the British and Portuguese colonial navies.The first of the present-day docks of the Mumbai Port were built in the 1870s. Bombay Port Trust (BPT) was established as a corporation on June 26, 1873. BPT's founding chairman was Colonel J.A. Ballard.Port development was undertaken by the civil engineering partnership Sir John Wolfe-Barry and Lt Col Arthur John Barry as Joint Consulting Engineers to the Bombay Port Trust at the end of the nineteenth century.From its establishment, the port has been the gateway to India, and was a primary factor in the emergence of Mumbai as the commercial capital of India. The port and the corporation took their present names in the 1990s.