Developments in Industrial Growth of Tuticorin Port Hinterland
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INFOKARA RESEARCH ISSN NO: 1021-9056 Developments in Industrial Growth of Tuticorin Port Hinterland Dr.K.Marimuthu Guest Lecturer Department of History Bharathidasan University Tiruchirappalli-24, Tamil Nadu, India [email protected] Abstract— The Port of Tuticorin is important as it forms the Southernmost Port on the east coast and has the largest trade in South India. In his enumeration of ports on the east coast of India. Port hinterland study consists of the evaluation of the developments in socio¬ economic activities that are likely to affect or be affected by the demand for port commerce. The developments of hinterland districts of Tuticorin port. Keywords— Tuticorin, Port, Hinterland, Industry I INTRODUCTION The Port of Tuticorin is important as it forms the Southernmost Port on the east coast and has the largest trade in South India. In his enumeration of ports on the east coast of India, Sosikourai (Tuticorin) is referred to an emporium at the mouth of the River Solen (Porunai) first historical reference made by Ptolemy.1 Tuticorin formed a part of the Pandyan Kingdom during the 7th to 9th Centuries A.D., and passed into the hands of the Cholas during the 10th to 12th Centuries. Later it became one of the chief trading centres under the Later Pandyas.2 Port hinterland study consists of the evaluation of the developments in socio economic activities that are likely to affect or be affected by the demand for port commerce. The developments of hinterland districts of Tuticorin port are presented in Table 1. The hinterland districts have one-third of the total geographical area of the state. It has accounted for 27.43 per cent of the population as per 2001 census. Percentage of urban population is higher in primary hinterland than in the secondary hinterland.3 The rate of literacy is higher in Kanyakumari and Tuticorin compared to state’s average, while other hinterland districts almost equal the state’s average.4 The percentage of population increase since 1991 to 2001 was lower than the state’s growth rate in all hinterland districts except Virudhunagar and Tirunelveli. Half of the hinterland districts are above the state level average of working population, in which Dindigul was the highest, followed by Virudhunagar and the least was Kanyakumari in 2001. In the same way, the percentages of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families are higher in the hinterland districts, in which Kanyakumari registered the lowest with 17.7 per cent. An interesting finding is that the port district of Tuticorin witnessed the maximum percentage of families below the poverty line. The district of Virudhunagar accounted for the highest per capita income in the hinterland districts followed by Tuticorin, while the majority, seven district’s per capita income accounted for less than the state’s average.5 Another important tool to measure the development of the district is Human Development Index (HDI). The primary hinterland district’s HDI value is greater than the state’s average except Virudhunagar. Conversely, other than Madurai district, in the secondary hinterland districts, values are less than the state values. This study found that the higher percapita income districts are Tuticorin, Virudhunagar and Madurai and also percentage of the BPL families are higher.6 The general observation from the Table 1 is that, districts like Madurai, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin are in the forefront in many aspects. The former one is naturally urban-based economy and various types of infrastructure facilities are Volume 8 Issue 10 2019 921 http://infokara.com/ INFOKARA RESEARCH ISSN NO: 1021-9056 also sufficiently available, which is a greater advantage for the district’s development. But the subsequent two districts are dominant in trade and commerce, because of their proximity to the port of Tuticorin.7 Table 1. Tuticorin Port Hinterland Districts Development Comparison (2001)8 Primary Hinterland Districts Secondary Hinterland Districts Socio economic indicators puram Theni - Tamil Nadu Tamil Madurai Dindigul Tuticorin Pudukottai Tirunelveli Sivagangai Ramanatha Virudhunagar Kanya kumari Area (Sq. km) 4620 6810 1685 4288 4232 4086 4651 3986 2579 6058 130058 Population (in lakh) 15.72 27.24 16.76 17.51 11.87 11.55 14.59 25.78 10.94 19.23 624.06 % of Urban population 42.28 48.03 65.27 44.39 25.46 28.22 17.02 56.01 54.10 35.01 44.04 Density per Sq.km. 339 411 992 409 287 275 312 733 357 317 480 % of Literacy 81.52 76.09 87.55 73.70 72.96 72.18 71.12 77.82 71.58 69.35 73.45 % of increase population 7.54 11.97 4.34 11.92 5.73 4.32 9.43 6.75 4.33 8.99 11.19 (1991-2001) % of workers 43.03 46.79 32.68 50.27 44.00 44.27 46.64 42.22 47.45 50.69 44.78 % of BPL* 37.81 28.85 17.67 30.94 29.35 29.35 28.75 31.79 27.81 23.24 29.16 families(2000) Per capita Income(Rs.) (2001-02) @ 16150 13566 12260 21271 10851 10384 10435 16028 12437 13937 14700 HDI# (1999) 0.703 0.658 0.711 0.651 0.629 0.640 0.618 0.661 0.628 0.640 0.657 II INVESTMENT IN THE TUTICORIN PORT HINTERLAND Theoretically, investment can be determined by various factors particularly rate of interest and rate of return.9 The accessibility of infrastructure is also a main factor along with these factors. Among the infrastructure facilities, transport and communication are the most attractive sectors preferred by the private investors. In the transport sector, road, rail and port receive huge amounts of investment for strengthening their capacity, because of the demand by the industries, service and agriculture sectors, which would increase rapidly, particularly the port hinterland, will receive immense benefits.10 Table 2 portrays investment in various projects in the hinterland. Notable investors in the hinterland districts are NHAI, Southern Railways, Government of Tamil Nadu and Tuticorin Port Trust. NHAI has mainly invested in NH7, NH7A, NH45B and in some bypasses projects. Southern Railways concentrated on route conversions and the Government of Tamil Nadu concentrated on SH development. It is clear that the port district of Tuticorin and its adjoining district, Tirunelveli, received huge amount of investment among the hinterland districts.11 These two districts share 94 to 98 per cent of the total hinterland investment between 1999-2005. Since Theni is an agricultural district, it received less investment and in general, industrially developed districts attracted more investments. In addition, Table 2 shows that the primary hinterland received more than 95 per cent of investment from the total hinterland investment between 1999 and 2005. In the case of Small Scale Industries (SSIs), the secondary hinterland received around 52 per cent of investment, while even the primary hinterland have four districts, received considerable level of investment. Among the hinterland districts, Madurai stood first followed by Virudhunagar and Tuticorin. It is clearly observed that primary hinterland districts received massive investment; however the secondary hinterland districts except Madurai received less investment in this period. Volume 8 Issue 10 2019 922 http://infokara.com/ INFOKARA RESEARCH ISSN NO: 1021-9056 Table 2. Investments in Tuticorin Port Hinterland (Rs. in crore)12 Project Investment SSIs* Hinterland (2002 Districts 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2003) Primary Hinterland Districts Tuticorin 12933.1 10699.5 14333.0 16114.0 10472.0 10561.0 11090.0 410.4 Tirunelveli 11963.3 12238.3 15196.5 17363.0 17043.0 16257.0 16387.0 391.8 Kanyakumari 450.0 18.0 18.0 39.2 139.1 157.7 250.2 354.0 Virudhunagar 200.0 237.0 237.0 205.0 231.0 333.0 247.0 555.5 Secondary Hinterland Districts Ramanathapuram 112.5 118.5 356.0 356.0 317.0 87.4 481.4 178.8 Sivagangai 30.0 30.0 30.0 30.0 30.0 30.0 30.0 230.3 Pudukottai 9.0 40.0 - - - 7.0 188.0 319.7 Madurai 857.0 849.8 894.3 40.1 98.4 273.4 333.5 671.5 Theni - - - - 8.7 10.0 1.3 123.9 Dindigul 15.0 21.0 - 30.50 131.90 84.5 244.0 351.4 Hinterland total 26569.9 24252.1 31064.8 34177.8 28471.1 27801 29252.4 3587.3 Tamil Nadu 137364 155723 156785 164566 129160 132723 158974 12569 % of primary to total 96.15 95.63 95.88 98.66 97.94 98.23 95.63 47.72 hinterland investment % of secondary to total 3.85 4.37 4.12 1.34 2.06 1.77 4.37 52.28 hinterland investment During the Pre- British period, in the villages, carpenters, goldsmiths, blacksmiths and ordinary artisans exist and their work is much more the same as elsewhere. Cotton is grown in large areas and cotton industries are the most important ones in the district. Spinning mills, ginning factories and steam- presses are employed in the treatment of cotton. There are numerous hand-gins (manai), worked either by cotton-growers on their own account or owned and controlled by small entrepreneurs; handlooms for the production of carpets, blankets and cloths of all kinds exist in hundreds throughout the district. During the early centuries, chunk-cutting industry was an important one in the ancient cities of Korkai and Kayal.13 Korkai might have been an emporium of artisans and craftsman where ironsmiths, goldsmiths and carpenters, particularly ship builders abounded. It has now become an established fact that Korkai and Adichanallur were important centres in the megalithic period (Circa 8th century B.C to 3rd century A.D), when iron smelting was practiced on a large scale.