The ‘DigiYatra’ is an industry-led initiative coordinated by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Digi Yatra initiative is in line with the Digital India vision which aims to transform the nation into a digitally empowered society.
It is a project conceived to achieve contactless, seamless processing of passengers at Airports, based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT).
It aims to ensure the Digital processing of passengers at the airports.
The project envisages that any traveller may pass through various checkpoints at the airport through a paperless and contactless processing, using facial features to establish the identity which would be linked to the boarding pass.
It provides a decentralized mobile wallet-based identity management platform which is cost effective and addresses privacy/data protection issues in implementation of Digi Yatra.
Process under Digi Yatra: Passengers will be automatically processed based on the facial recognition system at checkpoints like-
Entry point check,
Entry into Security Check,
Aircraft Boarding,
Additionally, this will also facilitate self-Bag Drop and Check-in, using facial recognition to identify pax and data recall.
Pillars of Digi Yatra Initiative: Digi Yatra platform will be built on 4 key pillars, like-
Connected Passengers,
Connected Airports,
Connected Flying and
Connected Systems
Implementation:
In the first phase, Digi Yatra is proposed to be rolled out at two Airports namely Varanasi and Bengaluru in August 2022 and at five Airports namely Pune, Vijayawada, Kolkata, Delhi and Hyderabad by March next year.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) will identify their airports where Digi Yatra would be implemented in a phased manner.
Objectives of DIGI YATRA
Enhance passenger experience and provide a simple and easy experience to all air travellers.
Achieve better throughput through existing infrastructure using “Digital Framework”.
Result in lower cost operations.
Digitize current manual processes and to bring better efficiencies
Enhance security standards and improve current system performance.
Rollout of “Digi Yatra” system with a digital “ID” backed by a strong verifiable government issued identity like AADHAAR.
Digi Yatra Foundation
It has been set up as a joint venture (JV)company in 2019 under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, whose shareholders are AAI (26% shares) and BIAL, DIAL, GHIAL, MIAL and CIAL.
These 5 shareholders equally hold the remaining 74% of the shares. The Foundation was formed, with the objective of creating the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem (DYCE).
The Foundation was formed, with the objective of creating the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem (DYCE).
Digi Yatra Foundation will be a pan-India entity and the custodian of the Passenger ID validation process.
It will also develop consensus amongst the Aviation Stakeholders in India.
It would also define the criteria for compliance and guidelines for the local airport systems.
