Airport Authority of India (AAI) has planned to roll out Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) based biometric boarding system as part of the first phase of Digi Yatra implementation.
While the Facial Recognition boarding system is not yet available in any airports in India, AAI is planning to introduce it at four airports – Varanasi, Pune, Kolkata, and Vijayawada.
When it will be available in airports?
The proposed Digi Yatra Central Eco-system is planned to go live in March 2022. It is to be scaled up in a phased manner for implementation across various airports of the country.
What about the concerns of Data security of Passengers?
As per the Digi Yatra policy, registering for the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem is optional to the passenger. For availing the Digi Yatra services, passengers would send the travel details (Pax details, PNR and Facial Biometrics) through an app to the Biometric Boarding System of the respective departing airport.
Moreover, if for a particular journey, the passenger does not want to avail of the Digi Yatra services then the passenger has an option to not send the data and use the existing manual process at airports.
“The Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem envisages assessments (by independent teams to assess the level of security and system resilience to protect PII) and periodic audits by governing/regulatory bodies twice every year. Facial recognition is as per Industry ISO standards with best in class National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) listed algorithms complying to Data Privacy and Data protection requirement as laid down by Government,