Lighthouses and the Directorate General of Lighthouses and
Lightships
In the vast ocean, a mariner is not sure of his position unless he
is guided by some signal from the land/space. The Directorate General of
Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) provides the service to enable the
mariner to know his position with respect to a fixed point on the land with the
help of Visual Aids to Navigation such as lighthouses, light vessels, buoys,
beacons and Radio Aids to Navigation like Differential Global Positioning
System (DGPS), Radars, Radar Beacons (Racons), Automatic Identification System
(AIS) etc.
General and Local Lighthouses:
The Lighthouses are categorized into two types viz.
General and Local Lighthouse depending upon the marine traffic they serve.
The General Lighthouses are intended to serve the purpose of
general navigation along the coast of India. These are declared
"General" by the Central Government by Notification in the official
gazette. The administration, maintenance and up-keep of general Aids to
Navigation are the responsibility of the DGLL.
The Local Lighthouses serve the purpose for the navigation of
marine traffic in the port areas and approaches to harbours and
narrow waterways. The maintenance and management of local aids to navigation is
the responsibility of the local authorities like Maritime State/Boards/Major
Ports/Minor Ports. However, as per the Lighthouse Act, the DGLL inspects local
aids to marine navigation, makes such inquiries in respect of management of
these local aids to navigation and suggests ways for improvement.
Pre-independence
(i) Prior to 1927 there was no uniform system of management of
Lighthouse services in British India which included present day Myanmar,
Pakistan, Bangladesh and also various Princely States. As a first step to
centralize the Administration of Lighthouses, the government decided to
administer about 32 Lighthouses in the six Lighthouse Districts. viz.
Aden, Karachi, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta and Rangoon. The Lighthouse Act was passed
in 1927 and came into force in April 1929. However, after passing of the Act,
the administration of Lighthouses in Aden District was transferred to Her
Majesty’s Government in the U.K. The Government of India continued to
administer the Lighthouses in Persian Gulf financed from the Persian Gulf
Lighting Services Fund.
(ii) As a result of reforms introduced, Burma (Myanmar) was
separated out from rest of India. But Government of India continued to
administer the General Lighthouses in Burma under the terms of an introductory
agreement between the two Governments.
(iii) During the World War II, the activities of the
Directorate were very limited as several Lighthouses had to be doused in order
to prevent the enemies from making use of them.
Post-independence
After independence, the Karachi district and Lighthouses presently
in Bangladesh were separated out. Thus the Directorate was left with three
Districts with their Headquarters at Calcutta (Kolkata), Madras (Chennai) &
Bombay (Mumbai). About 50 Lighthouses, which were earlier under the
jurisdictions of Maritime Princely States, became direct responsibility of the
Central Government since 1950, resulting in creation of Saurastra & Kachchh (now
Jamnagar Lighthouse Distt.). In sixties, two new Lighthouse districts at
Port Blair (1960-61) and Cochin (1969-70) were established. One more Lighthouse
district at Visakhapatnam has been set up in the year 2001 for better
management and administration of the Aids to Navigation along the coast of
Andhra Pradesh.
In order to cope with post independence growing activities, the
Lighthouse Department which was under the Ministry of Commerce and later part
of Directorate General of Shipping was re-constituted into a separate
Department as the Department of Lighthouses & Lightships under the Ministry
of Transport. It was again renamed in the year 2002 as Directorate General of
Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) under the Ministry of Surface Transport - now
the Ministry of Shipping.
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