total length being 3,680 yards on the north and 3,780 yards on the south side. Of this extent 2,700 yards of revetment and 87 yards of groin on the north and 2,500 and 260 yards of revetment and groin respectively on the south had been erected as early as 1855; and the groins were extended considerably in 1887 and very largely about 1893. The chief difficulty is experienced from the mud creek which, as just mentioned, flows into the bay just north of the harbour mouth. Its course and mouth have altered with the foreshore, going further and further towards the east. This is the result of its own action combined with the construction of the groins. The northern wall crosses its mouth, with the result that the silt it brings down has formed a solid sand bank along the groin. This bank has extended with each extension of the groin and now threatens to choke the harbour's mouth. The groins have been given a turn to the north to endeavour to counteract this tendency, but without success. Further means of dealing with the difficulty are now being considered.
The port had originally four light-houses and two port lights. The latter still stand on the ends of the two groins, but two of the former are no longer in use. The light-house at Cocanada itself has not been used since 1877 (though it has been left standing as a landmark) and the Hope Island light-house, on what was once the most north-easterly extremity of the delta, was abandoned in 1902. There are now revolving lights at Vakalapúdi, some five miles to the north of Cocanada, and on the Sacramento shoal, over twenty miles south of the present Point Gódávari, to warn vessels off the point and shoal.
Cocanada possesses a Port Officer, and he and his establishment are paid in the usual way from port funds chiefly derived from dues on vessels visiting the place. 'Landing and shipping dues' are also collected from the local merchants at certain fixed rates on all cargo landed and shipped; and this money, with the rent of certain ground within port limits, is devoted, as elsewhere, to meeting all expenditure involved in the improvement of the port, such as the maintenance of dredgers, groins and the foreshore. The fund so constituted is administered primarily by the Cocanada Port Conservancy Board, of which the chairman is the Collector and the vice-chairman one of the members of the European Chamber of Commerce. This body fixes the rates of dues to be paid, looks after the ordinary measures of port conservancy, and initiates measures for the improvement of the port. Its expenditure is, as usual, under the control of the Presidency Port Officer and ultimately of Government.
