The centre has introduced paperless entry at select airports to make air travel hassle-free under the DigiYatra initiative.
What is DigiYatra?
- DigiYatra envisages that travellers pass through various checkpoints at the airport through paperless and contactless processing.
- This means, passengers won’t need to carry their ID card and boarding pass.
- This would rather use facial features to establish their identity, which would be linked to the boarding pass.
- With this technology, the entry of passengers would be automatically processed based on the facial recognition system at all checkpoints – including entry into the airport, security check areas, aircraft boarding, etc.
Implementation strategy
- In the first phase, the initiative will be launched at seven airports, starting with three — Delhi, Bengaluru, and Varanasi.
- It will then be followed by four airports namely Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, and Vijayawada by March 2023.
- Subsequently, the technology will be implemented across the country.
How is it being implemented?
- The project is being implemented by the DigiYatra Foundation — a joint-venture company whose shareholders are the Airports Authority of India (26% stake) and Bengaluru Airport, Delhi Airport, Hyderabad Airport, Mumbai Airport and Cochin International Airport.
- These five shareholders equally hold the remaining 74% of the shares.
How can people avail the DigiYatra facility?
- For availing the service, a passenger has to register their details on the DigiYatra app using Aadhaar-based validation and a self-image capture.
- In the next step, the boarding pass has to be scanned, and the credentials are shared with airport authorities.
- At the airport e-gate, the passenger has to first scan the bar coded boarding pass and the facial recognition system installed at the e-gate will validate the passenger’s identity and travel document.
- Once this process is done, the passenger can enter the airport through the e-gate.
- The passenger will have to follow the normal procedure to clear security and board the aircraft.
