
The Delhi airport has released a beta version of the ‘DIGI YATRA’ app for Android users, with an aim to make airport travel paperless and contactless.
The app, according to Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), will offer travellers a biometric-enabled seamless travel experience based on facial recognition technology.
It will use facial recognition to determine a traveller’s identity, which will further be linked with the boarding pass. This also provides a cost-effective decentralised mobile wallet-based identity management platform that addresses privacy/data protection concerns in the implementation of Digi Yatra.
The app was released as part of the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem (DYCE), which was established as a joint venture in 2019 by the Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF).
DYF’s shareholders include the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and airports such as BIAL, DIAL, GHIAL, MIAL, and CIAL. While the five airports own 74% of DYF, AAI owns a 26% stake in the airport.
According to a civil aviation ministry statement, the joint venture will conduct regular audits of various complainers and guidelines (including guidelines on security, image quality, and data privacy) defined by the Digi Yatra guidelines for the local Airport Biometric Boarding Systems (BBS).
The DIGI YATRA project will also include airports in Pune, Vijayawada, Kolkata, and Hyderabad by March 2023. As part of its first phase, the project was also implemented at Varanasi and Bengaluru airports. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will identify additional airports for phased implementation of the system.