Patna, Dec. 12: Over 60 per cent of liquor bottles detected or surrendered at the Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport post prohibition have been at departure gates.

As per excise department records, a total of 59 passengers had surrendered 99 bottles of high-end liquor till December 11.

"We are surprised that over 60 per cent of liquor bottles detected or surrendered at the Patna airport have been at the departure gates," a senior excise official told The Telegraph. "A majority of the bottles seized by our team deputed there are costly, foreign made foreign liquor variety."

Brands include single malt and high-end whiskies, and imported wines. "We don't know how such high-end liquor is coming to Patna. Our officials working at the airport are doing well while working under adverse circumstances," the senior excise official said.

That more bottles were seized at the departure could be because outbound fliers have to get their baggage scanned while there is no such machine for arriving fliers, the official admitted.

The state government had requested for scanners at the arrival sections of Patna and Gaya airports in April, but there has been no progress on the request.

"We are not installing x-ray baggage scanners due to operational difficulties," excise commissioner Aditya Kumar Das told The Telegraph: "We will have technical discussions and take a decision on it. However, our officers are vigilant."

Excise department sources said the scanner for arrivals idea was a brainchild of the previous excise principal secretary K.K. Pathak, and the plan was shelved after he was shifted in September.

Without scanners, a team of four officials led by excise inspector Randhir Kumar Singh is severely hamstrung in checking the luggage of the roughly 4,500 passengers who use the airport daily. There is no facility to store the confiscated bottles at the airport, nor has the excise team working there been provided a vehicle to transport the seized liquor to the department.

Though frequent fliers into the city could not recollect seeing any such incident, excise officials said they do carry out random checks on incoming passengers.

"A lady from Calcutta raised a ruckus when we tried to search her luggage and yelled at us that her brother was an inspector-general with the Bihar police. We finally managed to recover three bottles of foreign liquor from her possession," Randhir said.

Some excise officials said there was not enough space at the airport to install baggage scanners for arrivals. However, Patna airport director Rajendra Singh Lahauria said: "We would have definitely spared some space had the scanners come. But they did not come."