Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) will soon have biometric facial recognition technology at the boarding points. The technology is already available at Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport under the Narendra Modi government's Digit Yatra initiative.
"As an outcome of trials conducted and proof of concept established over 24 months ago, BIAL is implementing a biometric-based passenger boarding process at the KIA. It will ensure quick, seamless boarding for passengers," Bangalore International Airport Limited officials told The Times of India.
At the moment, travellers are required to show their boarding pass at multiple checkpoints. However, with facial recognition, travellers will have to show their documents and have their faces scanned at one point.
Reports state that the first phase will be rolled out by July-end and will be implemented at the domestic terminal. After the trial run and the technology flows smoothly, it will be implemented for international passengers after the go-ahead by the government as well as other approvals by regulatory authorities.
KIA in Bengaluru has already a body scanner initiative trial in place at the security checkpoints. Those travellers who don't want to go through the body scanner will be frisked. Before installing the body scanners, a trial run at KIA began on July 1 and is expected to go on for three to four weeks.
The body scanners will be situated at airports deemed as 'hypersensitive'. The other airports include Delhi, Mumbai, Amritsar, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. Along with them, three airports in Jammu and Kashmir are also included in the list, reports Hindustan Times. This initiative was made mandatory by the Bureau for Civil Aviation Secretary (BCAS).
One of the reasons to implement the new technology is to reduce the amount of time spent at the counter which leads to congestion and help make travel more efficient and hassle-free.
