Over 30,000 lost items found at KIA this year, more than 10,000 returned back to owners

On October 20, Jaskaran Singh, a passenger from Chandigarh who arrived at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) had left behind his backpack on an airport shuttle bus.

He realised that he had forgotten his backpack before checking in and approached the airport staff about the missing bag.

The staff traced the bus in which Mr. Singh travelled using an UPI transaction he made, recovered the backpack and handed it back to him.

Mr. Singh had shared this incident on X (formerly Twitter) which received several re-posts and appreciation from users on the platform.

Incidents like this routinely take place everyday at the airport, items left behind by passengers are recovered by airport staff and handed back to them.

According to the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) officials so far this year a total of 30,842 lost and found items have been received at the airport.

“Out of these, 10,605 items have been successfully identified and handed over to their rightful owners,” an official told The Hindu.

Among the items which were returned to passengers, bags accounted for the most, 2,850 bags were returned to passengers followed by electronic devices (1,779) and watches (941).

The official said that BIAL has a dedicated team to handle lost and found articles and can assure passengers that anything that the Lost & Found Department receives will be stored safely.

“To ensure owners are able to track their belongings, all details of the items found in the airport are regularly uploaded on the airport website, along with the procedure to claim their belongings. Owners, whose details are available, are contacted to hand over their belongings,” the official said.

The official added that items found are retained for a period of one month from the date of deposit and are disposed of, if not claimed within this period.

“Indian passports are posted to the Regional Passport Office while foreign passports are sent to the respective embassies after a 30 day-retention period. Bank cards, cheque books and pass books are disposed of after 48 hours. Perishables such as food are disposed of within 24 hours,” the official added.

For the owner of the item to recover the lost item he or she will have to submit a copy of boarding pass, details of items being claimed (verification) and valid Government photo-ID proof.

If someone else has been authorised to claim the item, documents like valid Government photo-ID proof of the owner of the item, valid Government photo-ID proof of the individual authorised to collect the item, copy of boarding pass and letter of authorisation from the owner of the item, with details of the article being claimed will have to be submitted.