Project ‘DIGI YATRA’ enables paperless and contactless processing at airports all over India. Envisaging the vision of the new normal world, the project embraces Facial Recognition Technology (FRT). Bangalore and Varanasi stood first to roll out the project on August 15 this year.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation conducted a Consultative Committee meeting on the topic ‘DIGI YATRA’. Held in New Delhi, the members of the parliament cum committee participated to enhance some valuable aspects of this project. The system, also termed Digi Yatra Central Economy (DYCE), was initially established in 2019 by Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF).
Defining ‘DIGI YATRA’
The highlight of this project as explained by Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation is to embrace hassle-free travel across the sky. With the aid of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT), travelers can pass through the checkpoints in the airports through paperless and contactless processing. The identity of the passenger is marked with the facial features which in turn will be linked to the boarding pass.
“Discussed the workings of “Digi Yatra”, our maiden project to digitalise processing of travellers at airports,” Scindia added.
Objectives of ‘DIGI YATRA’
- To deliver a paperless and contactless experience for all passengers across all processors or check-points at all airports.
- To receive relevant information about the steps to be followed at the airports.
- To improve “Digital Framework” with FRT enabling biometric security solutions.
- To enhance security at Indian airports.
- To address privacy or data protection-related issues.
- Decentralized mobile wallet-based identity management platform.
- Results in low-cost operations.
Shareholders and their Role
Major shareholder being Airports Authority of India (AAI) with 26 per cent of the entity, the rest 74 percent is held by BIAL, DIAL, MIAL, TIAL, and CIAL. The role of DYF includes curator of passenger ID validation process, consensus development among the Aviation Stakeholders, conduct audits on a regular basis of the various compliances and guidelines such as guidelines on security, image quality, and data privacy.
The DIGI YATRA project will be effective in Bangalore and Varanasi airports from August 15 onwards. Other airports in Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and Kolkata will launch it by March 2024. After this, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will identify the other airports to implement this project phase-by-phase.
