Evaluation of unclaimed items at Chennai airport pending

Most of these materials include unclaimed baggage, laptops, iphones, ipods, earphones and books. When unclaimed, after preliminary checks they are deposited in material management stores of the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Perishable commodities like food and beverages are stored for a couple of days before being disposed off if not reclaimed. Sometimes even white and yellow metal (gold and silver) items are also recovered from baggage.

In 2015, till December as many as 105 yellow and white metal items were deposited in the stores of which 42 were collected from the domestic terminal and 63 from the international terminus.

These items are kept in a separate safe by a committee of three members and in the custody of the finance department as it falls under the category of valuable goods.

Sometimes even cash and currency are found which are then deposited in the bank.

Meanwhile, to reclaim the lost commodities, passengers are required to furnish a valid id and proof that the item belongs to them. However, as per AAI rules, the unclaimed objects are kept for a period of six months after which they are valued by a committee and then sent for an open auction.

In 2015, till now no such auction was conducted because the evaluation of the objects was still pending, an airport official said.

On possible reasons for several items lying unclaimed, an AAI official said, “Sometimes passengers are in a hurry and they tend to leave their baggage behind. On other occasions, we have seen that they themselves leave excessive baggage to avoid extra luggage charges from airlines”.

Many passengers did not know where to claim the lost and found items. President of Air Passengers Association of India (APAI), Sudhakar Reddy, believes that a proper mechanism needs to be introduced so that so many items are not lost and the luggage can be returned to the rightful owners. RFID can be introduced.