``It is remarkable that the tradition of ship-building and commerce from this natural port has continued unbroken right through ancient and medieval India to our times,'' says Sohail Don, director of Hiba Marine Private Ltd, the largest ship-fabricating unit among the five currently active in the Reti Bunder area abutting the Kalyan creek.

The travelogues of ancient travellers like Manuchi, Tolemi and Periplis are full of details of the abundant trade in jewellery,precious stones and metals, spices, silks, honey, ghee, butter, and some birds and animals from the Kalyan port to all major ports in South Asia, the Persian Gulf, the African Coast and Europe. This is further confirmed by the stone edicts found at the Kanheri caves in Borivli.

Don explains why Kalyan port has always attracted sea-farers and ship-builders. ``Apart from being a safe port due to its distance from the open seas, it is not affected by tidal activity like the other Northern ports on the West Coast,'' he says, adding, ``the same 1000 metric tonne capacity vessel which would take six months to fabricate in Jamnagar (since the creek banks get inundated in high tide) takes only three months or even lesser to be completed here, since the work can go on continuously.''

It was perhaps this that impelled the great Maratha king Shivaji to get ships built for his Navy here. The first-of-its-kind Indian naval armada, the brainchild of Shivaji, got the better of even the Portuguese, borne out by the factthat the Portuguese navy had to suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of the Maratha navy led valiantly by the Angres on May 15, 1658. An indicator of the Maratha hero's far-sightedness is his decision to employ the services of the Portuguese naval architect Rue deGuvera to design 20 battle ships in Kalyan.

Don, himself a marine engineer, reminds that the ships were then made entirely of wood. ``The abundantly available teak in lush forests around Kalyan provided easy raw material. We now fabricate the vessel in steel,'' he points out.

The turnover per 1000 metric tonne vessel comes to nearly Rs 1.25 lakh, the amount increasing as per the attributes of each vessel.

While vessels of every possible kind are made in Kalyan, the location of the Vasai bridge on the way out to the sea comes in the way of fabricating anything more than 30 metres wide. ``The arch of the Vasai bridge has only a 40 m width, so we cannot go in for larger vessels,'' laments Don.

Shalil Kazi Al-Hazar, another big player in theship-building business, points out that most of the orders are for barges and cargo ships. ``These are used to ferry goods from the big vessels in the open seas to the smaller ports, where the shallow waters don't allow the big vessels to enter,'' he explains, adding that ``most of our orders are from Gujarat. In a way we are in direct competition with Jamnagar port, where there are more than 13 ship-fabricating units.'' Don interjects proudly.

``However, the ship-builders at Jamnagar cannot offer the kind of finish and quality we do, so the orders keep coming to us. We have even got orders from Mumbai and the Konkan belt.''

He, however, admitted that the recession which has hit the shipping industry worldwide has had its effect on Kalyan too. ``Earlier, we used to work on 18-20 vessels at a time. That number has trickled down to as little as 6-8 vessels,'' he said, blaming the government for not doing enough to encourage water transport and the shipping industry in particular.