Pune: The customs authority at the city airport has reintroduced the ‘green channel’ for arriving international passengers who had nothing to declare for customs duty.Sources said this will allow faster processing of the international arrival.“Earlier, there were two channels –red and green – at the old terminal. The same could not be established when the terminal changed to new one due to various reasons, including space issues. Now, some modifications have been done and passengers who didn’t have to declare anything for customs duty can pass through the green channel. The customs offiers, however, will check green channel passengers as well in case of information or suspicion,” a senior customs officer told TOI.“We used to check practically all the arriving flyers. If not all of them, the baggage of most of them were scanned and checked. With the green channel, it won’t happen. People passing through the green channel will not have to go through the checks. We, however, always get information on flyers via our sources or profiling. If there is any information about a flyer and that he or she is passing through the green channel, the flyer will be stopped, checked thoroughly and questioned if necessary,” the official added.Pune airport currently has a total of 5 direct international flights – to Dubai, Bangkok, and Abu Dhabi. These flights are operated by IndiGo, SpiceJet and Air India Express. The airport was notorious for several smuggling attempts of gold, fake currency and more recently, hydroponic weed and exotic animals.“As per regulations on gold, people coming back after very short to short visits are not allowed to carry any gold. Those females who are coming back after a stay of 6 months or more can carry gold up to 40 grams in the form of jewellery. For men, the limit of gold is 20 grams. Anything above this threshold will have to be declared and the customs charges need to be paid,” another official pointed out.The airport also recorded high international passenger traffic in 2025. The airport recorded the international passenger traffic of 3,38,770 passengers against 2,05,460 flyers in 2024. Satyajeet Singh, a businessman, who often travels abroad, said, “It will definately help. Presently, it takes a lot of time for flyers to pass customs and even immigration at times. Especially, at the customs check, one has to wait for a long time even when flyers don’t have to declare anything. This will help in reducing the wait,” the Koregaon Park resident, said.A source in an airline said, “Generally, until the immigration and customs clearance of all flyers gets completed, the aircraft has to remain parked in the bay. Even the garbage cannot be cleared from the aircraft. With the airport having limited bays, the long wait has resulted in issues even with timings of all the international flights being different,”
