Pune Airport, situated in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, received an equipment upgrade to support customs operations. The airport, which often comes under scrutiny for instances of gold smuggling attempts, has received new bag scanners.
New equipment
Pune Airport recently received two new baggage scanning machines to help customs authorities track smuggling attempts. This comes as a massive relief, with India opening its borders to scheduled international traffic from March 27th. The Times of India quotes a senior customs official as saying,
“The baggage scanning machines we have been using till now only offer a vertical view of the bags. The new machines will give us a horizontal, vertical and get a 360-degree view of the baggage.”
The airport has often come under the microscope for its lack of infrastructure and equipment required in modern-day airports. Lately, the focus has also been on the several attempts of gold smuggling through the airport, prompting authorities to install state-of-the-art machines before the Indian skies open to regular international traffic.
Several attempts of gold smuggling
For some reason, instances of gold smuggling have increased at Pune Airport. Last month, the customs department in Pune arrested a man for smuggling gold worth almost Rs 34.8 lakh (approx. $46000). An official statement released on February 11th said,
“Based on a tip-off, officers of the Air Intelligence Unit of Pune Customs arrested a passenger attempting to smuggle 705 grams of gold bars and pieces by concealing them in his shoes. On interrogation, the passenger confessed that he had traveled from Dubai to Ahmedabad by flight, concealed the gold in the aircraft, and then retrieved it when he traveled from Ahmedabad to Pune in the same aircraft.”
In December 2021, officers also apprehended two passengers traveling from Chennai to Pune carrying 800 grams of 24-carat gold. Six gold chains and one bracelet worth Rs 40.36 lakh (approx. $51,000) were retrieved from the individuals. The items were concealed below the seat of the aircraft.
Gold isn’t the only item to be detained in Pune. Last month, customs officials at the airport also confiscated about Rs 6 lakh worth of illegally-acquired foreign currency from a passenger who attempted to smuggle it from Pune to Sharjah.
Desperate need for an upgrade
Pune Airport is part of the Indian Air Force (IAF) station of Lohegaon. While the civil enclave handles commercial flights, the airport is primarily used to train pilots by the IAF, which also controls its air-traffic control and the 2.5km-long runway.
Pune is the 9th largest city in India, a software and industrial hub, and home to many popular universities. Yet a lack of a fully operational airport has somewhat hindered its growth.
The existing runway is not long enough to support large aircraft operations, which means that many international carriers and cargo operators cannot fly in. Hopefully, with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) starting construction of a new terminal building in Pune, the airport will see better days in the future.