MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Indian domestic flyers will soon be able to fly paperless with the help of a new facial recognition technology being introduced under the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s ambitious “Digi Yatra” project this year.
Digi Yatra will be based on facial recognition technology, artificial intelligence and electronic boarding gates. While taking domestic flights, passengers willing to opt for Digi Yatra, will be asked for a one-time registration either at the airport or through the Digi Yatra portal, against which a unique DY ID will be generated and which will be used for all future air travels across India.
The unique DY ID will be linked to one’s PNR number every time one books a ticket with any airline, which in turn will be uploaded in the central database of the Digi Yatra portal. With the help of the airline and using artificial intelligence, the portal will be able to recognise the airport, the city, the airline and the passenger details to make a match and send the details to the security staff six hours prior to the departure of the flight for a quick and hassle free experience for the traveller at the airport.
Airports will be fitted with automatic boarding gates that will operate using the facial recognition technology at several points, such as the main entry gate into the terminal building, boarding gates and at the entry to the Security Hold Area (SHA).
According to the Ministry’s sources, this technology will help streamline the airport experience in India as well as expedite the process of boarding. Not only this, according to officials in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Digi Yatra will also help the security agencies in enhancing security at the airports as passengers with fake tickets will not be able to gain access to the terminal building.
A senior Ministry official said, “With the introduction of Digi Yatra, passenger experience at airports will improve drastically. It will reduce a significant amount of time that is lost in physical verification of documents at several check points by airline officials and security agencies. Security agencies will just need to verify physically the documents of the personnel once at the main entry point, after which all the processes will be automated and passengers will be able to pass through automated gates which would open only when the passenger details are matched using the facial recognition system. And all this will happen within minutes.”
“Not only this, passengers will also be able to drop their baggage at the baggage drop counter by just facing the camera, which will pull out all the details of the passenger, including the flight number and other flight details within seconds,” the senior official added.
According to sources, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), which is responsible for overseeing security at the airports, has given its nod to the scheme. Sources in the BCAS say that passengers registering for Digi Yatra would have to link their Digi Yatra ID with one of their government identity cards, such as Aadhaar, passport, driving licence, voter ID card, photo identity card issued by Central or state governments or such other ID cards as provided in the list of IDs issued by the BCAS.
The Digi Yatra scheme will be put in place for a trial phase in the technologically advanced Hyderabad airport very soon, after which the scheme will be implemented in airports in Varanasi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Vijaywada and Pune.
However, the scheme is not mandatory. It will be made optional for passengers, and for the time being, the Digi Yatra experience will be limited to domestic travel, as international travel will require a physical verification of passports and visa by the airline, security agencies and immigration officials.
Sources in the Ministry also said that the bidding and tendering process for the Digi Yatra scheme was likely to start soon. In the recently concluded Global Aviation Summit in Mumbai, NEC Technologies, which would be one of the bidders for Digi Yatra, had made a demonstration of how Digi Yatra would look like in India.
Nilesh Puri, senior sales manager from NEC Technologies, told this correspondent, “The Digi Yatra scheme will be completely digitised and will lessen manual interventions at airports. It would not only save time, but also act as a security measure at airports. It is a fast and efficient technology with 99.5% accuracy and has been tested at the Atlanta airport in the United States. India would be one of the pioneers of this technology.”
“It is the latest trend in the aviation sector and India is leading in the sphere of digitalisation. Moreover, India is the fastest growing aviation market in the world and there is immense opportunity in this field,” Puri added.
Puri, as well as officials from the Ministry as well as BCAS, said that all the data that the Digi Yatra portal would collect, would be safe and secure and all the airlines and airport operators would adhere to data protection and data privacy laws and requirements in the country.