On the heels of obtaining the transfer of registry of its property on Willingdon Island after six and a half decades, the Customs Department has kick-started efforts to retrieve its properties that are under various forms of encroachments across Kerala.
According to officials, the department will hold negotiations with the Principal Secretaries of the various State government departments, which are currently occupying these properties. The agency possesses land parcels in prime locations of the State, including Munnar, Fort Kochi, Alappuzha beach, Kollam, Kannur and Kasaragod.
“Most of them have been occupied, either partly or completely, during the past several decades, and in some case, the land is with us though we do not possess the papers of its ownership. Attempts are on to identify those lands and their exact locations and based on this, discussions will be held to get the current occupants to move out at the earliest,’’ said Sumit Kumar, Commissioner of Customs.
The land parcels thus retrieved will be handed over to the department’s infrastructure cell for building up capacity. ‘‘We require more space for constructing our offices, staff quarters, storage and laboratories, among other things,’’ the Commissioner said.
New annexe
The department is planning a new annexe of the Cochin Customs on its 2.43 acres of land at North End, Willingdon Island, and has received a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Cochin Port Trust (CPT). Though the land was exchanged with the CPT in 1954, infrastructure projects were held up for want of land transfer documents.
The buildings on the property, which had remained vacant for years, will be demolished before the construction of the new building.
Upon completion, the headquarters of the Commissionerate of Customs (Preventive), which currently operates from a rented space at Broadway, will also be moved to the new building.