The excise department office in Pernem is housed in a Portuguese-era building on the outskirts of town along the Pernem-Korgao road. The building is in a dilapidated condition with part of it already collapsed.

The office is a three-partitioned room which also accommodates an excise inspector's cabin and room for the staff. In fact, even seized goods are kept under the same roof.

While one end of the structure has collapsed, the excise offices which are situated at the other end have been given a temporary facelift with a fresh coat of paint and repairs to the roof tiles.

"The excise office at Pernem is becoming unsafe. Visitors can see roof tiles and mud heaps in the building. It needs to be shifted for the safety of the public and staff," a visitor at the office said.

The structure which is 15m in length started falling apart a few years ago, and the damage is now a mere 5m away from the office.

"The falling roof tiles and wide cracks in the mud walls are clear evidence that the building may collapse any time if restoration is not carried out at the earliest," said another visitor.

The excise office in Pernem has to also manage a checkpost at the Goa border at Patradevi which is about 12km from Pernem.

"Though we are managing, it's difficult to operate from an office which is ill-equipped and dilapidated," an excise official said

Sources said that the BSNL telephone exchange office was situated in the same building but was shifted to new premises almost a decade ago. However, the excise department continues to operate from the same building.