The Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Civil Aviation met today in New Delhi. The subject of conversation was “DIGI YATRA”. Members of the committee who are also members of parliament (MPs) attended the meeting and offered some insightful ideas regarding the project.

What is ‘DIGI YATRA’ ?

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‘DIGI YATRA’ is an initiative designed to ensure contactless, seamless processing of passengers at airports and is based on facial recognition technology (FRT).

In essence, the idea envisions any traveller being able to pass through numerous checkpoints at the airport utilising a paperless and contactless procedure, establishing their identification through facial recognition and linking it to their boarding card.

Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, claims that the system has addressed privacy issues.

How is ‘DIGI YATRA’ beneficial?

It offers a decentralised, cost-effective, mobile wallet-based identity management technology that addresses privacy and data protection concerns while implementing Digi Yatra. After the amended Digi Yatra rules were approved, the DGCA published an AIC (Aeronautical Information Circular) on April 18, 2022.

How did the “DIGI YATRA” come into being?

Under Section 8 of the Companies Act of 2013, the Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF) was established as a joint venture (JV) firm in 2019. AAI (26 percent of the shares) and BIAL, DIAL, GHIAL, MIAL, and CIAL are its shareholders. The remaining 74 percent of the shares are held equally by these 5 shareholders.

To create the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem, the Foundation was established (DYCE). The curator of the Passenger ID validation procedure would be the pan-Indian Digi Yatra Foundation. Additionally, it will foster agreement among Indian aviation stakeholders. Additionally, it would outline the local airport systems’ policies and requirements for compliance.

The JV will regularly audit the different compliances and guidelines for the regional airport biometric boarding systems, including those related to security, picture quality, and data privacy (BBS).

In 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. AAI will identify their airports where Digi Yatra would be implemented in   phased manner.