Kathmandu, Jan 18 ( IANS): An Indian has been arrested with two-and-a-half kg of gold from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu Friday as gold smuggling from Nepal to India has surged in recent days.

Bikram Kumar Bisandar Chaitramani from India's Maharashta state was arrested here by airport police after he flew in from Dubai on a Flydubai flight.

Superintendent of Police Bidur Chaudary said that Chaitramani had concealed two kg of gold in his shoe and worn the remaining 500 grams as a bracelet. To hide the identity of the metal, the bracelet was painted silver.

He was carrying a passport bearing the number 124205. He was taken into custody for further investigation.

Just in a week, Nepal police have seized 14 kg of gold from an Indian and 8 kg from a Chinese which were supposed to be smuggled from the Nepal-China border for onward smuggling to India.

In the last six months, Nepal police have seized 37.67 kg gold and, according to some traders here, everyday around 70-80 kg of the yellow metal is being smuggled to India.

Police suspect that most of this illegal gold comes from Hong Kong via Tatopani village on the Nepal-China border and sometimes by the air route too.

With India tightening gold import besides increasing import duty, Nepal has become a safe heaven for smugglers to take the yellow metal into the neighbouring country through Nepal's southern border.