The Ministry of Civil Aviation will implement the Digi Yatra in a phased manner at the airports across the country, as informed by the officials.

While it is being implemented in Varanasi and Bangalore from August 2022, it will start functioning in Kolkata, Pune, Vijayawada, Delhi and Hyderabad by March 2023. Digi Yatra seeks to provide a seamless, paperless and hassle-free experience for passengers across all checkpoints at all Indian airports.

Officials further added that the main objective is to enhance the passenger experience by eliminating the need for verification of tickets and ID at multiple touch points and to achieve better throughput through existing infrastructure using a Digital Framework. It will simplify the passenger processes at various checkpoints in the airport right from the terminal entry gate, check-in, bag drop, and security check-up to boarding gates said an official.

The project is under the implementation stage and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has awarded the work for implementation of the Biometric Boarding System at Kolkata, Pune, Vijayawada and Varanasi airports. Preliminary testing of the Digi Yatra Biometric boarding system with registration for the ‘Day of Travel’ at these airports has been completed.

The Digi Yatra policy launched in August 2018, provides detailed guidelines for the implementation of Digi Yatra at Indian Airports. DGCA has issued Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) titled “Implementation on E-Boarding Process (Digi Yatra)” for implementation under the Digi Yatra Platform.

Under the system, facial recognition would be done with the consent of the passenger as per the extant data privacy and data protection regulations. Data shared by the passenger would be used for the purpose defined and would not be shared with any other external stakeholder. The data shared by the passenger will not be retained for more than 24 hours after the departure of the flight.

Digi Yatra Central Identity Management Platform would be developed by the Digi Yatra Foundation, a Joint Venture (JV) Company of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other JV/private airports.