DigiYatra Rolls Out Across These 7 Airports: Paperless, Contactless Passage With Facial Recognition! How It Works?

The soft launch of the Centre’s DigiYatra initiative has been done by the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL). The beta version of its app has been rolled out for Android platforms. 

Based on the technology of facial recognition, DigiYatra has been piloted at the Delhi airport and has had the required infrastructure set up at the airport’s Terminal 3.

All About DigiYatra

When the travelers are passing through the airport, they have to pass through various checkpoints. With the app, they want to make the entire process paperless and contactless and the facial features of the traveler will be used for identification, which would then in turn be linked to the boarding pass.

Including entry into the airport, security check areas, aircraft boarding, etc, all checkpoints will have the facial recognition system and hence the traveler movement will be entirely paperless and contactless and will be automatically processed.

Now that being said, how does one use this app?

First and foremost thing is to install the application. Android users will have to go to the play store to download the DigiYatra app, whereas iOS users will have to wait for a couple of weeks.

After the download, one has to enter the details like Aadhaar credentials, followed by a selfie with the Aadhaar card. In addition to Aadhar, vaccination details are also to be added in the app. 

After this, one has scan one’s boarding pass with the QR code or Bar code, after which the credentials will be shared with the airport.

While entering the airport, the passengers will need to scan their boarding passes at the e-gate and look into the facial recognition system camera installed there. A similar method will be applicable for entry into other checkpoints.

DigiYatra Implementation

The Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Civil Aviation met last month to discuss about the DigiYatra project which is going to be implemented by the DigiYatra Foundation.

It is a joint-venture company whose shareholders are the Airports Authority of India (26% stake) and the rest 74% is equally held by the Bengaluru Airport, Delhi Airport, Hyderabad Airport, Mumbai Airport and Cochin International Airport.

The DigiYatra Foundation will be the custodian of the passenger ID validation process. It will also define the criteria for compliance and guidelines for the local airport systems. There will be regular audits of the various compliances and guidelines (including guidelines on security, image quality, and data privacy) defined by the DigiYatra guidelines for the local airport Biometric Boarding Systems.