New Delhi, Feb 23 (IANS) More air travellers have started using the Digi Yatra app as over 1.6 lakh passengers have taken advantage of the mobile application for seamless airport entry, an official said on Thursday.
Digi Yatra is being implemented across airports in a phased manner. In the first phase, it was launched by Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on December 1, 2022 at Delhi, Bengaluru, and Varanasi airports, a statement noted.
The implementation of Digi Yatra under phase I is also planned at Kolkata, Pune, Vijayawada, and Hyderabad airports by March 2023.
According to the officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry, the total number of passengers who have used the Digi Yatra process at the airports from December 1, 2022 to February 14, 2023 is 1.6 lakh+.
The total app user base of Digi Yatra on the Android Play Store and iOS Apple App Store is over 4 lakh.
Officials said that Digi Yatra is a biometric boarding system using Facial Recognition Technology to provide a seamless and hassle-free experience for passengers at airports.
It enhances passenger experience by eliminating the need for verification of tickets and IDs at multiple touchpoints and provides better throughput through existing infrastructure using a Digital Framework.
Digi Yatra is a voluntary facility.
In the Digi Yatra process, there is no central storage of passengers’ Personally Identifiable Information data.
All the passenger’s data is encrypted and stored in the wallet of the passenger’s smartphone and shared only for a limited time duration with the airport of travel origin where the passenger’s Digi Yatra ID needs to be validated.
The data is purged from the system within 24 hours of the flight.
To give wide publicity to Digi Yatra, airport operators and airline operators are doing in-flight announcements, publicity through boarding passes, providing help desk support and displaying banners and films etc., at the airports.
Publicity is also being done through social media.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) has awarded the work for the implementation of the Biometric Boarding System at Kolkata, Pune, Vijayawada and Varanasi airports.
–IANS
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