What is Digi Yatra? Enrollment, security, benefits of biometric boarding at Bengaluru Airport

Bengaluru Airport is going to making it a lot easier for air travellers to get to their flight. After introducing the automatic tray retrieval system, the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru has an advanced way of processing passengers through security.

The civil aviation ministry and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) through Digi Yatra platform, aim to minimise paperwork for air travel and make it convenient to clear various levels of security and verification at the Bengaluru Airport. Digi Yatra platform will change the boarding experience at the airport forever by using biometric data for faster and smoother movements at airports.

What is Digi Yatra and how does it work?

Digi Yatra platform was rolled out in Bengaluru Airport last June as an optional self-boarding method. Digi Yatra basically turns your face into your boarding pass for future air travels at the Bengaluru Airport. This system digitally processes passengers at airports, without them having to show documents and boarding pass at multiple checkpoints.

While Digi Yatra is taking shape at the Bengaluru Airport, other airports across India are also going to be equipped with this advanced biometric boarding technology soon. Those who are enrolled in the Digi Yatra can use the Digi Yatra ID while booking the ticket.

When the passenger arrives at the airport, proceed director towards e-gate and scan the boarding pass or e-ticket. Once validated using passenger dataset, a single biometric face token, and the gate opens. Passenger can follow the same procedure for the rest of the journey at the airport.

What are the benefits of Digi Yatra?

Digi Yatra has its own benefits and the civil aviation ministry isn't leaving any stone unturned to highlight those advantages. Frequent travellers benefit the most from Digi Yatra platform as it simplifies checking in and boarding experience at the airports.

Here are a few benefits of Digi Yatra:

• Paperless self-boarding
• No need to show boarding pass or ID at multiple checkpoints at airports
• Less queue time
• Improved security as the system can map the passenger with the PNR
• Real-time information on passenger load

Are there risks to Digi Yatra platform?

When the former minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha praised Digi Yatra platform at the KIAL, a lot of users raised privacy concerns as the system takes facial data to process passengers. While the concern was rightly placed, Sinha assured there won't be any misuse of the data captured by Digi Yatra.

Sinha said the Digi Yatra system is fully GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant and all flight information and travel records are purged as soon as the trip is over. The Digi Yatra policy prevents airports from creating a profile of users and using that for marketing purposes without consent.

Once enrolled, Digi Yatra users can opt-out of the system and delete their profile anytime.

How to enrol for Digi Yatra?

If you wish to give Digi Yatra a try, the process to enrol is pretty simple. There are registration kiosks at the airport, where passengers can provide their details to get Digi Yatra ID for future air travels.

• Go to the Digi Yatra registration kiosk at the airport
• Enter Name, Email, and Mobile number
• Choose which ID you'd like to share. If you choose Aadhaar, then the Aadhaar info is completed as per UIDAI guidelines
• The kiosk camera will then capture your face and iris and Aadhaar validation is done through iris biometrics
• After completion, a UID Token of 72 characters is sent to Digi Yatra platform for your profile
• A separate Digi Yatra ID is created and sent to the passenger via email and mobile
• The Digi Yatra ID can be used for future travel booking

In case the passenger uses another ID card, such as PAN or Voter's ID, the Digi Yatra ID won't be activated until approved by the CISF personnel at the airport.