Customs sleuths seized a huge consignment of cigarettes smuggled from Myanmar, from a godown on the city's outskirts last evening.

An official source said the operation, which was conducted last evening on the basis of a tip-off, led to recovery of 35.4 lakh sticks of Myanmarese cigarettes of different brands from a private godown in the 10th Mile area on the Assam-Meghalaya border.

"There are cigarettes of different brands like Win, Paris, Golden, Elephant, Peacock Classic and Karaweik, which were packed inside 354 cartons. The total value of the contraband will be around Rs 1.77 crore," the source said.

Though a case has been registered under relevant sections of the Customs Act, nobody has been arrested so far.

"These cigarettes were suspected to have been smuggled into the country through the India-Myanmar border either in Manipur or Mizoram and then stocked in the godown here to be shipped to places like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where such cigarettes are in high demand," the source said.

In March this year, there had been back-to-back seizures of cigarettes smuggled from Myanmar worth several lakhs of rupees by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) staff from two trains in Patna. The cigarettes were loaded on the train in Assam and it was bound for New Delhi.

According to the source, high excise duty on cigarettes in India has resulted in flourishing of contraband trade of the product and low-cost cigarettes make their way to India from Myanmar, China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan.

The source said in the past, customs officials had foiled attempts to smuggle such cigarettes from Imphal to New Delhi through air cargo.

"In January 2014, there have been three seizures of Myanmar-made cigarettes from Imphal-Guwahati-Delhi flights at LGBI airport in Guwahati by customs officials," he said.