Team News Riveting
Raipur, September 6
The Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu on Friday inaugurated the Digi Yatra facility for nine airports including Raipur at Visakhapatnam International Airport.
He virtually launched this facility for eight other airports of the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Besides Raipur’s Swami Vivekanand airport, the other airports include Coimbatore, Dabolim, Indore, Bagdogra, Ranchi, Patna and Bhubaneswar.
Speaking at the inaugural function, the Civil Aviation Minister explained how Digi Yatra simplifies the tedious task of managing various documents – boarding passes, identity cards and luggage tags – during airport congestion. The entry time for a passenger into the airport has come down from the average 15 seconds it takes to perform the manual procedure to 5 seconds. Over 55 lakh users have already downloaded this app and more than 3 crore passengers have used Digi Yatra for travel.
With the introduction of the first Digi Yatra facility at three airports – New Delhi, Varanasi and Bengaluru – on December 1, 2022, the total number of Digi Yatra- enabled airports will be 24. These include today’s nine airports.
The Minister underlined the importance of starting the Digi Yatra. “It started at a very opportune time during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the need to minimize physical contact became more urgent than ever. Digi Yatra has facilitated contactless and paperless processing at major airport checkpoints. Since its inception, this system has helped save thousands of sheets of paper every day at airports, thereby supporting our broader goal of sustainable development in the civil aviation sector. “
Naidu reiterated the Government’s commitment to the issue of data security of passengers. “Even in the Lok Sabha, I have emphasised that Digi Yatra is built on a strong data security foundation. Even today, I would like to categorically state that there is no centralised repository of PII of passengers. All passengers’ data is encrypted and stored securely on their smartphones and shared only temporarily with the origin airport and destroyed within 24 hours of departure. Privacy of every single passenger is paramount for us and the Ministry of Civil Aviation will not compromise on this. “
Digi Yatra is a transformational digital initiative of the Government that aims to enrich the passenger experience with smooth, contactless and paperless boarding at airports based on facial recognition technology (FRT). It assists passengers to go through various checkpoints at airports through a paperless and contactless process using facial recognition to verify their identity and travel details.
