Bhubaneswar: The customs department on Friday recovered gold weighing 340gm from two passengers at Biju Patnaik International Airport here. Both the fliers, hailing from Chennai, arrived here from Kuala Lumpur by AirAsia.

Customs officials said search of personal baggage of both the passengers had led to the recovery of four pieces of cylindrical gold bars of foreign origin. Those were concealed inside the trolley wheels. The value of the recovered gold is Rs 10.56 lakh.

"We are further questioning both of them to find out whether they were part of gold smuggling racket," said an official.

He added the amount of duty-free gold, which can be brought by passengers, is low and it has to be in the form of ornaments. A woman passenger is allowed to bring 40gm of gold not costing more than Rs 1 lakh, while the amount is 20gm for male and should not be worth more than Rs 50,000. However, this is only for those staying abroad for more than six months.

More than 6kg of gold have been recovered from passengers at the airport since the first direct international flight of AirAsia to Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur was launched in April last year.

"The seizure indicates that criminals are again trying to smuggle gold through carriers. We have our own intelligence to detect such passengers," said a customs official.