Three businessmen were illegally occupying the land in the city since 1992 when the CPA cancelled its lease awarded about 65 years ago.

The businessmen erected unauthorised commercial structures on the land, said CPA Magistrate Mohammad Munir Chowdhury, who conducted a daylong eviction drive yesterday.

The CPA team reinforced by law enforcers demolished a two-storey tin-shed boarding, 10 to 12 mess quarters, a hotel and restaurant and a timber shop, the magistrate told The Daily Star.

Sources said late Khan Bahadur Meah Khan Sawdagar was the first leaseholder of the land in 1941-42. His heirs enjoyed the lease by renewing it until the Liberation War in 1971.

After independence, successors of Khan Bahadur refrained from renewing the lease and enjoyed the financial benefit by renting the land for commercial purpose. However, businessmen Zakir Hossain Sawdagar, Kabir Ahmad Sawdagar and Badsha Sawdagar virtually took hold of the land in the early 90s, they added.

The sources said the CPA cancelled the lease of the land in 1992 due to its unauthorised use.

The CPA magistrate inspected the land on Monday and asked all encroachers to vacate the land in 24 hours.

Earlier on December 28 last year, he recovered another four-katha land of the port from encroachers.