Some unscrupulous people, mostly a section of dishonest officials and staffs of Bangladesh Railway (BR), encroached the land adjoining to Port Stadium in Madhyam (middle) Halishahar area.

The land was handed over to the then Port Trust, which is now Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), back in 1960.

The CPA land was occupied by different structures like houses, shops, club houses, furniture factories, garages and poultry farms for this long period, sources said.

Despite repeated requests by CPA, the railway authorities kept mum in evacuating the land while railway men established illegal structures there, they added.

During the three-hour drive that started at 9:30am, around 50 illegal structures were demolished.

Of the recovered land, five acres would be handed over to Chittagong customs authority for setting up a customs auction shed, sources said.

A platoon of police and officials and staffs of CPA mechanical, estate, engineering and electricity departments participated in the drive.

When contacted, Magistrate Munir Chowdhury said that the same court also conducted such a drive back in 2004 when it recovered 22 acres of land worth over Tk 100 crore at Halishahar Barapool area.