Launched on December 1, DigiYatra enables domestic air travellers to have easy entry and embarkation at Delhi, Bengaluru, and Varanasi airports.
Gaining entry into the airport is somewhat cumbersome as a result of the processes involved. In a bid to simplify this, the government launched DigiYatra at Delhi airport recently. But what is it and how does it work? Let’s find out.
Seamless travel
DigiYatra is a facial recognition software that allows domestic air passengers to seamlessly travel without carrying an ID card. DigiYatra aims at providing passengers a hassle-free entry and embarkation experience based on facial recognition technology at airports in the country. In other words, your face becomes your identity. DigiYatra facilitates a contactless air travel experience at entry point and boarding gate and will make the whole process of boarding faster.
To start with, it was rolled out at Delhi, Bengaluru, and Varanasi airports. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia launched the facility at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on December 1. DigiYatra will become operational at four more airports – Hyderabad, Pune, Vijayawada, and Kolkata – by March next year and then across various airports in the country.
Download the app
The DigiYatra app by the Digi Yatra Foundation is available on Google Playstore for Android mobiles and App Store for iPhones. Download the app on your Aadhar-linked mobile phone. For availing oneself of the service, a one-time registration on the app has to be done using Aadhaar-based validation and a self image capture. Update the boarding pass on the app and share it with the airport. At the airport, the passenger will have to scan their bar-coded boarding pass downloaded on their phone and the facial recognition system installed at the e-gate will validate their identity and travel document.
Once this process is over, the passenger will have to follow the normal procedure to clear the security and board the aircraft.
At present, DigiYatra is available for passengers taking domestic flights of Air India, Vistara, and IndiGo.
An initiative of the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Digi Yatra Foundation was set up in 2019 to develop a facial recognition system at airports for streamlining air travel.
Concerns
As air passengers have to furnish their Aadhaar details for this service, there are concerns about data theft and privacy. The Minister laid them to rest by saying that the data of the passengers will be stored in an encrypted format in a decentralised manner on their mobile phones. He also said that the data passengers upload would mandatorily be cleared from the servers at the airport 24 hours after their travel.
Picture Credit : Google