Air India area marketing manager Dhairyashil Vandekar had taken up the matter in public interest with custom authorities. "Earlier, a body had to be flown to Mumbai and after custom clearance at Mumbai, it had to be brought by road to Pune," said Vandekar.

"The whole process was inconvenient and time-consuming. Apart from that, it was very traumatic and painful for the grieving relatives. To avoid this situation, it was necessary to have custom clearance for human remains at the Pune international airport," he said.

Last month, there were two instances in which the bodies had to be flown from Dubai to Pune.

"The relatives had requested Air India to give permission to bring the bodies directly to Pune. But we were not in position to give the permission as it was not in our hands. In the backdrop of these incidents, we strongly felt the need to have clearance for bodies," said Vandekar.

"I wrote to the Customs Commissioner in this regard a few days back and requested him to consider this matter on the humanitarian ground," he said.