ED to get its own office in BKC, agency chief performs ‘bhoomi pujan’

The proposed office complex, estimated to cost ₹400 crore, will comprise 14 floors, including four floors in the basement, agency officials said

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is set to get its own 14-storeyed office complex at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in around four-and-a-half years. The agency’s director Rahul Navin, a 1993-batch Indian Revenue Service officer, conducted a ‘bhoomi pujan’ or foundation-stone laying ceremony at the plot in BKC on Monday, while touring the city to take stock of ongoing cases.

The ED received possession of the plot, leased by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and located a few metres away from the Mumbai office of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in March (Hindustan Times)

The ED received possession of the plot, leased by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and located a few metres away from the Mumbai office of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in March. The proposed office complex, estimated to cost ₹400 crore, will come up on a portion of the 2, 200-square metre plot; it will comprise 14 floors, including four floors in the basement, agency officials said.

Construction work is likely to commence in another six months, during which all necessary formalities including approvals would be acquired, officials said. The layout of the office building has been approved, while approval of the building plan is in the final stages, they mentioned.

“Once construction begins, work should get completed within 48 months,” an official said, requesting anonymity.

The new building at BKC will house the headquarters of the ED’s western region, headed by a special director, alongside offices of zonal unit-1, which largely probes cases in the city, and zonal unit-2, which probes cases across Maharashtra excluding Mumbai and cases in which predicate cases are registered by central agencies such as the CBI.

The new building would also accommodate the additional staff to be inducted as part of the recently-approved cadre restructuring in the ED, resulting in creation of additional units to handle PMLA and FEMA cases.

At present, the ED operates out of three separate buildings in the city, at Mazgaon, Ballard Estate in south Mumbai and Worli. The offices of the western region and Mumbai zonal unit-2 are located on separate floors in Ceejay House, Worli; the offices encompass five commercial units which the ED had taken possession of as part of its money-laundering probe against alleged narcotics trafficker Iqbal Mirchi, now deceased.

The Mumbai zonal unit-1 of the ED works out of a floor in Mazgaon’s Nirman Bhavan, while another building in Ballard Estate is used as a store room, for safekeeping records and evidence related to the agency’s cases.

The buildings which the ED works out of now have other offices as well, which makes the task of keeping an eye on visitors a tad difficult, officials said.

In April 2025, a fire had broken out at the ED’s Ballard Estate’s office, and it was apprehended that many crucial records and evidence may have been lost. But later, the ED clarified that there would be no impediment in the agency’s conduct of investigation or trial in any of the cases it was probing since it had backups of all crucial case documents, including evidentiary documents, relied-upon documents and original documents.