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The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu released the policy on the biometric-based digital processing of passengers at airports called Digi Yatra. Addressing the media, he said that the Ministry has taken the initiative to develop standards for the digital processing of passengers at the airport to ensure uniform implementation and passenger experience across Indian airports through a connected ecosystem.
It was informed that the Digi Yatra Central Platform will be operational by end of February 2019. Bengaluru and Hyderabad International Airports will be ready with pilot implementation by end of February 2019. Airport Authority of India (AAI) intends to roll out the programme initially at Kolkata, Varanasi, Pune and Vijayawada by April 2019.
Suresh Prabhu said DigiYatra will provide a pan-India powerful platform for future, adding that airports will have the possibility of providing innovative services and consent-based targeted services in future. “Any service provider involved in facilitating travel of passenger from door to door will be able to use this platform in future through the innovative solution,” he said. The Minister asserted that the ultimate beneficiary will be the passengers, who will have all the travel related options available to them.
Elaborating on the contours of Digi Yatra, Minister of State of Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha said, it is a facial recognition based passenger processing which is a common standard being adopted the world over. To provide a seamless experience right from the entry to the airport up to boarding the aircraft, Sinha said, Digi Yatra will have a centralised registration system for passengers. Sinha pointed out that a passenger who has created the Digi Yatra ID has to undergo a one-time verification at the departure airport during his/her first travel. “In case a passenger opted for Aadhar based verification, the identity will be verified online. On successful verification, facial biometric will be captured and stored in the Digi Yatra ID profile of the passenger. In case the passenger has chosen any other identity for creating Digi Yatra ID, verification will be done manually by security personnel and facial biometric will be captured and stored in the Digi Yatra ID profile. By this process the registration is complete,” he explained.
The Secretary, MoCA, Rajiv Nayan Choubey further elaborated on Digi Yatra mechanism saying that a successfully registered passenger can go directly to the entry point E-Gate of the airport and scan the barcode/QR code of the ticket/boarding pass. “A camera will capture the face for comparing with Digi Yatra ID Photo. On successful verification of the travel details and facial matching, the E-Gate will open. The system will also generate a token in the system combining the face of the passenger with PNR of the ticket so that at subsequent checkpoints the ticket details will be available on face recognition.”
“At check-in counter or at the Self Bag Drop counter, the passenger will be identified by face and there is no need to show any document or ID for this purpose. The passenger will gain entry to the security check area through an E-Gate by facial recognition. Similarly at the boarding gate also the passenger will be identified by face for entering through an E-Gate for boarding the aircraft.”
As Indian Aviation is witnessing an unprecedented passenger growth for the past 50 months and it is likely to continue, this would mean the existing airports have to handle more passengers for the considerable time before additional infrastructure is created.
Source: travelnewsdigest.in
