I am a Support Professional - Want to become a developer! What route should I follow?

I am working in an IT company as a Sr. Support Associate (almost 3 yrs in support). My job is to support empoyees of my company... kinda like in-house support (AD, VPN, Sharepoint, normal troubleshooting). I always wanted to become a programmer, and to get this thing true, I have completed OCJP recently, now I want to switch over and I am not sure how to do it. I am quite confused as to how and what should I do to become a developer.

Please help my Java mentors

You might be able to switch, but you would probably start off at the bottom, and you would start at a Jr programmer's salary. That would likely mean that your salary will be reduced in the short run. You need to ask yourself the question whether you want to take a paycut to get into development.

Thank you for the reply Jayesh, but what's the salary of a Jr. Programmer, and where do I start?? I consider myself a newbie and I am one. Is there a way that I can include my support experience somewhere. I have completed ITIL as well. I am all open to suggestion and is willing to start from bottom once again.

why don't you try to switch to a new project in same company? and after gaining some confidence you can change that company.

Thank you for the reply Vijay,
I am in search for such opportunity, but do you suggest that these certifications are enough as of now to grab a job??

You could write some application/tool which helps you in your daily work. It could be something like creating a self help site for your users, a user feedback portal etc. Subsequently you can use this to make your case when you approach any manager for a dev role.

Also network with developers in your company. Find out what kind of dev projects are they working on and if there is an open role in team.