Heritage paddle steamer to return to Hooghly river in new 'Avatar'

Built in the United Kingdom's Dumbarton Shipyard in 1940s, a paddle steamer 'PS Bhopal' is likely to make a comeback on the Hooghly river soon and is expected to give a fillip to the Kolkata port's heritage tour programme, officials said on Sunday.

The makeover of the 62.6-metre long and 2.4-metre wide vessel is being done in a private yard near the eastern metropolis.

"The renovation of the vessel is almost complete and it is expected to sail on the Hooghly river soon, maybe in the next couple of months. Once the steamer starts operation, it will give an impetus to our heritage tour programme as the new-look 'PS Bhopal' will accommodate more heritage enthusiasts than the existing ship, used for such tours," Syama Prasad

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Mookerjee Port, Kolkata Chairman Vinit Kumar told PTI.

The private party involved in renovating and operating the heritage vessel will use it for commercial purposes in lieu of a royalty payment of Rs 50,000 to the port authorities, he said. The overhaul of the 80-year-old vessel is being executed at a cost of over Rs 3 crore, he said.

'PS Bhopal' was part of a flotilla of steamers that were brought from the UK during the British period and deployed mostly on rivers of the undivided Bengal to pull cargo boats, and many of these vessels are still available in neighbouring Bangladesh, said Goutam Chakraborty, honorary heritage advisor of SMP, Kolkata.

The paddle ship which had two large paddles on either side driven by steam engines, had sailed on the Hooghly river for years before it was turned into a training ship, he said.

In a bid to restore the historic value of the ship, the authorities of the riverine port decided to keep the paddle and old machines as artefacts in the renovated vessel but steam engines will no longer be used, Chakraborty said.

"The operator has modernised the steamer and retained the heritage features of it. There will be a small museum in it, encompassing the history of the ship and this will also be ready soon. The vessel will be provided to us for 3-4 days a month for conducting the heritage tour," Kumar said.

Apart from the museum, the renovated ship will have a dining space, an auditorium and a special gallery for port-related artefacts, Chakraborty said.

The Kolkata Port Trust, rechristened as the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, had in 2020 deferred the plan to bring back the heritage paddle ship due to Covid-19. Kolkata port among the major ports in the country was the pioneer of introducing heritage tour programme in 2018 and has conducted around 28 such trips, Chakraborty claimed.

"The port authorities have been using Sea Land for the heritage trips but this ship can accommodate 25-30 people for each tour and has some inadequacies such as movement of vessel during high tide. So we have some restrictions and have been planning these tours keeping the weather condition in mind.

"But the 'PS Bhopal', the only one of its kind in India, will not only allow us to accommodate over 100 people but also give the authorities more flexibility to plan heritage trips as it is more powerful than the existing one," Chakraborty said