The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) plans to set up a navigation bureau in preparation for taking over the control of the country's 34 lighthouses, a senior official said Tuesday. Lighthouses, used as an aid to navigation by shipping, tend in most countries to be administered by the transport ministry or harbor administration agency. Taiwan, however, has traditionally placed lighthouses under the management of the Ministry of Finance's Directorate General of Customs, for historical reasons. After losing the Opium War to the United Kingdom in 1842, China's Qing Dynasty was forced to open five ports to international trade. As the Chinese did not have the expertise to build and manage lighthouses, however, its British- controlled customs office was delegated to handle construction, maintenance and administration of such infrastructure. In the first year following Taiwan's return to China from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II in 1945, the island's lighthouses were briefly administered by the transport department, but they were turned over to the customs office the following year -- at that time, the Republic of China government still ruled China, where lighthouses were managed by the customs authorities. After the communists took control of China, lighthouse management there was transferred to China's Ministry of Communications, but the government of Taiwan did not follow suit. In line with a sweeping government restructuring plan to be put into effect in 2011, the official said, the MOTC plans to create a navigation bureau to take charge of harbor and lighthouse administration, while transforming the four existing harbor bureaus into state-run companies responsible for attracting foreign shippers to make port calls or use local harbor facilities. At present, the Directorate General of Customs' Maritime Affairs Department is responsible for lighthouse management. The department has a staff of about 200 people to administer the 34 lighthouses and other relevant facilities, along with a vessel to transport supplies to lighthouses which tend to be situated in remote capes, cliff tops or isolated reefs. If the MOTC takes over control, the official went on, it will set up a lighthouse center under the new navigation bureau to handle relevant affairs. 