Airport officials clueless about abandoned passports found in post box

Chennai: Police suspect that an airport employee may be behind dumping of passports in a post box at Pazhavanthangal. However, airports authorities are clueless.

As per the protocol followed by Chennai airport, lost and found passports are kept at the duty manager’s room for 24hours and are then handed over to the police and an FIR is registered.read more chennai airport lost and found and chennai Airport lost property

A duty manager said that they had received a few lost and found passports which were handed over to the travellers.

Airport director Deepak Shastri said, “Travellers misplace passports in the arrival terminal because they always hold it in their hands while walking out after completing formalities like immigration and customs check. There is a high possibility for people to lose passports at international terminals because we have found that most of the people do not keep them inside their bags.”

He also said, “If a passport is lost inside the terminal building we follow the procedure and try to track down the passenger. If no one turns up we will hand it over to the police. If the passport belongs to a foreign national, we will hand it over to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO).”

Chennai airport has around 2,500 employees working inside the two terminals. An official said, “It may be possible that an employee may have picked up a few lost and found passport and did not reveal it. But, it is difficult to trace unless specific complaints are received from passengers. When a complaint is received CCTV footages are inspected.”

It may be difficult to trace a lost passport if it is lost outside the terminal building. In most of the cases, travellers often realise about lose only after they reach home. “As they may not know where they lost it, they will not come back to the airport to look for it. They will instead file a police case and get a new passport,” said an official.

Deepak Shastri said, “We have no role to play in this because we have been following the protocol.” Passengers often leave behind several items including handbags to wrist watches every day. These are notified in the website of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and are kept in a store room till they are returned.