Kelve Fort


Kelve Fort / Kelwa Fort is a fort located 12.5 km from Palghar, in Palghar district, of Maharashtra. This fort is admist the Casuarina plantation on the Kelwa Beach. This fort is in ruined condition. The outer walls, steps, parapets, bastions etc. in solid masonry are in excellent order and worth seeing.The half of the fort is below the sandy beach level. The fort is located in the Mangelwada of Kelve village.There is a small Kelve pankot on the mouth of the Kelve creek.

History

This fort was built by Portuguese. The portuguese reported that in 1727 there was a garrison of sixty men in the fort out of which seven were white. There were 15 guns of two to ten pounder size but there were no artillery man. Most of theguns were unserviceable. After the siege of Vasai Fort by Chimaji Appa, the Maratha army captured this fort on 10 January 1739. The Fort was captured by British Army in 1818. The half buried fort in the sandy soil was unearthed in 2008–09.

How to reach

The nearest town is Palghar which is 109 km from Mumbai. The fort is reachable by a motorable road. There are good hotels at Palghar and Saphale. Palghar is well connected by Road and rail route.

Places to see

The Fort is rectangular in shape. The entrance gate is east facing immediately followed by another gate at a right angle to the earlier. There are four bastions triangular in shape on the four corners of the fort. It takes about 10 minutes to walk around the parapet wall and visit all the places of the fort.