Digi Yatra Facility

Why in news

• Recently, Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu inaugurated the Digi Yatra facility for 9 airports.
• With this, the total number of Digi Yatra-enabled airports has increased to 24

Key Points

• The 9 airports where this facility has been started are -
  1. Visakhapatnam Airport
  2. Coimbatore Airport
  3. Dabolim Airport
  4.  Indore Airport
  5. Bagdogra Airport
  6. Ranchi Airport
  7. Patna Airport
  8. Raipur Airport
  9. Bhubaneswar Airport

Digi Yatra Initiative

• The Digi Yatra initiative is based on 'Facial Recognition Technology' (FRT). 
• It has been launched with the aim of facilitating contactless and seamless movement of passengers.
• The first Digi Yatra facility was launched on December 1, 2022 at three airports - New Delhi, Varanasi and Bengaluru.
• Under this initiative, facial features are used to prove one's identity at airports for paperless and contactless movement at various check points.
• After the Digi Yatra facility, the time taken for a passenger to enter the airport has reduced from an average of 15 seconds in the manual process to 5 seconds.
• Digi Yatra Foundation, a non-profit company, is the nodal agency for the Digi Yatra initiative.

Use of Face Recognition Technology

• To avail this facility, passengers will have to register on the ‘Digi Yatra App’ using Aadhaar-based authentication and capture a self image.
• At the airport e-gate, the passenger will first have to scan the ‘bar coded boarding pass’ after which the FRT installed at the e-gate will validate the passenger’s identity and travel document.
• Once this process is completed, the passenger can enter the airport through the e-gate.