CHENNAI: Soon, passengers travelling from Chennai airport won’t be requiring boarding passes, flight tickets, or any other papers to travel. According to Chennai Airport Director S Sreekumar, the Airport Authority of India is likely to implement Digi Yatra by 2021 on pilot basis across Vijayawada, Varanasi, Kolkata and Pune airports, apart from Chennai.
“In the South, once it is implemented in Vijayawada, we will be studying how successful the model is and tweak it if required and then implement it in Chennai Airport. Positively by 2021,” he said. Digi Yatra is a government initiative for digital processing of passengers at the airports.
Passengers would be automatically processed based on facial recognition system at check points such as entry point check, entry in to Security Check, aircraft boarding, additionally this would also facilitate self-bag drop and check-in, using facial recognition to identify passenger and data recall.
Under the Digi Yatra initiative, a passenger will first have to get a unique ID by registering on the Digi Yatra portal using an approved ID proof document such as Aadhaar, PAN or driving licence. Once this step is completed, the passenger will have to go through a one-time facial verification at an e-gate at the airport’s departure terminal.
Following this, the details will be stored on a centralized registration system and thereafter, the passenger’s face will act as the boarding pass. Then, the passenger after dropping off baggage, if any, can directly proceed for security check. The paperless biometric technology or Digi Yatra has already been implemented in Bangalore and Hyderabad airports. Trials have also started in Delhi airport. The system will prevent fake tickets or passengers using boarding pass of some other passenger.