Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia recently announced the first phase of the Digi Yatra project, which will allow passengers to check-in at the airport using facial recognition technology. He further said that this facility will be launched on August 15 at the airports of Bengaluru and Varanasi. Under the Digi Yatra project, a passenger will pass through various checkpoints at the airport through a paperless and contactless process, using facial features to establish identity. Which will be linked to the boarding pass.
Scindia said on Twitter that he chaired a meeting of his ministry’s advisory committee on the project on Monday, which included members from various political parties. “Discussed the working of “Digi Yatra”, our first project to digitize the processing of passengers at the airport. Phase 1 to commence at Bengaluru and Varanasi airports on August 15,” he said.
He added that privacy issues have been taken care of in this project. In a statement, the civil aviation ministry said Digi Yatra provides a “decentralized mobile wallet-based identity management platform” that is cost-effective and addresses privacy and data security issues.
It said Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF) will be a pan-India entity and custodian of the passenger ID verification process under the project.
DYF has been incorporated in 2019 as a Joint Venture Company under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, in which Airports Authority of India holds 26 per cent shares, while having airports at Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kochi. Private operators will have. The remaining 74 percent own the shares, it noted.
DYF will also develop consensus among aviation stakeholders in India regarding this project. The company will also define norms for compliance and guidelines for local airport systems.
“The joint venture will conduct regular audits of various compliances and guidelines (including guidelines on security, image quality, data privacy) as defined by the Digi Travel Guidelines for Local Airport Biometric Boarding Systems (BBS).”
The ministry said that Digi Yatra will be launched at airports in Pune, Vijayawada, Kolkata, Delhi and Hyderabad by March next year. “AAI will identify their airports where Digi Yatra will be implemented in a phased manner,” it added.
(with inputs from PTI)