New Delhi: A dozen more airports are ready to implement Digi Yatra facility to facilitate the passengers seamless and contactless movement at various checkpoints with the help of facial recognition system, civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Thursday.
Launched on 1 December 2022 in its first phase at Bangalore, Varanasi and Delhi airports, Digi Yatra facility is currently available at 15 airports. The airports where the facility is available are Vijayawada, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3 (T3) and Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.
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The minister informed the Lok Sabha 12 more airports are ready to implement DigiYatra, while 11 airports are preparing to have the facility.
Responding to a supplementary during the Question Hour, the minister emphasised that the passenger data shared through DigiYatra App is not stored in any centralised system, saying the government is committed to protecting data privacy.
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While the DigiYatra app is slowly gaining traction, there have been concerns expressed in various quarters about privacy of passenger data. “The app facilitates the passengers to enroll their verifiable credentials using Aadhaar card number and to keep their personal information on their smartphones to ensure data privacy,” the minister said.
Based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT), DigiYatra provides for contactless, seamless movement of passengers at various checkpoints at airports in India. Digi Yatra app has been downloaded by more than 43 lakh users, Naidu said, adding the scaling up of the facility will be done in a phased manner.
