Hyderabad: As part of the government’s Digi Yatra program, Facial Recognition System (FRS) will be implemented in seven Indian airports, including Hyderabad, in a phased manner by March 2023.
The first phase is planned at Kolkata, Varanasi, Pune, Vijayawada, Bangalore, Delhi, and Hyderabad airports. According to the civil aviation ministry, this program is aimed at providing passengers with a seamless and stress-free airport travel experience.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation, General VK Singh (retd), informed the Lower House, “Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem is aligned to the global processes of International Air Travel Association (IATA) pass for interoperability for seamless international travel.”
The minister informed Parliament on Thursday that preliminary testing of the Digi Yatra biometric boarding system had been completed at four Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports including Varanasi, Pune, Kolkata, and Vijayawada, as well as three joint venture airports, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and New Delhi.
Ministry of Civil Aviation in a press release said, “The requirement of security is dynamic in nature. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the regulatory authority for civil aviation security in the country, in consultation with other concerned agencies and stakeholders, reviews the security arrangements at airports from time to time and upgrade the same as per requirement.”
Preliminary testing of the Digi Yatra Biometric boarding system with registration for the ‘Day of Travel’ was completed, and the program is ready to be launched.
Passengers would need to provide their trip details (passenger details, PNR, and biometrics) through an app to the departing airport’s biometric boarding system in order to use the Digi Yatra services, according to the minister.
Furthermore, if a traveller does not wish to use Digi Yatra services for a specific route, the passenger can choose not to send data and instead use the conventional manual process at airports.
