The Tolkeshwar Point Lighthouse is situated on a hill on the southern bank of the entrance to Vashishti River leading to nearby Dabhol Port. The river is navigable by small crafts up to Chiplun. The lighthouse has to be approached from Chiplun town through Anjanwel village, which is 60 km from Chiplun.
There is an all weather road between Anjanwel and Chiplun which is an important town on Konkan Railway and NH-17.
A cast iron column was erected with a bracket on top and arrangement for hoisting a lantern. An iron cabin enclosing the column was provided at the base in 1880 A wick lamp with chimney inside a 5th order optic and a Lantern used to be hoisted from this mast. The LH expert D Alan Stevenson during his visit to the station in January 1927 found light poor and suggested improvements.
A 5.5m high masonry tower was constructed during 1933-34 and a new equipment giving occulting flash was installed and commissioned on 15th April 1934. The DA gas (AGA) flasher replaced the occulting light, providing character of flashing (3) every 15 seconds in 1950.
The present Lighthouse tower was constructed during 1956-58 and a new PV equipment inside a 3rd order optic (Stone chance) was commissioned into service on 15th February 1960. The PV source was replaced by Metal Halide lamp in September 1995. The emergency light was converted to 12V 50W Halogen lamp inside 300 mm lantern installed outside the lantern house on 28th September 1997. The light source was modified to 3 X 70 W MH cluster lamps and UPS also provided on 31st July 2003.
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