Digi Yatra Policy

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has released the Policy on biometric based digital processing of passengers at Airports called "Digi Yatra". DigiYatra envisages a connected ecosystem enhancing the seamless travel experience for the passengers and simultaneously improving the security.

Objectives

Every passenger, (Indian citizens and foreigners) become a “Digi Yatri” and enjoys the privileges and benefits of the “Digi Yatra” Program. The main objectives are as below:

1. Enhance passenger experience and provide a simple and easy experience to all air travelers.
• Deliver a seamless, paperless and hassle-free experience to all passengers across all processors/ Check-points at all Indian airports. (Including Tier-1, 2 and 3 airports)
• Improve passenger experience, so that they can plan their trips efficiently.
• Receive relevant information pertaining to various facilities, protocols, airline timings, queue waiting times at the airport.
2. Achieve better throughput through existing infrastructure using “Digital Framework”.
• Walk-through security scanners swiftly owing to advanced biometric security solutions.
• Stay connected through the airport, possibly through airport Wi-Fi, engage in customized digital offerings at experience zones.
3. Result in lower cost operations.
• Remove redundancies at Checkpoints.
• Enhance resource utilization.
4. Digitize current manual processes and to bring better efficiencies
• Get real time notifications about congestion & delays to have greater visibility on the next step of journey.
• Navigate seamlessly through the airport using digital guidance systems, interactive kiosks and augmented reality apps.
• Stay connected during flights and indulge in immersive experiences. Also book in-flight services and destination based offerings digitally.
5. Enhance security standards and improve current system performance.
• Enhance security at Indian airports using “Digi Yatra ID” based Identification with real-time Biometrics.
• Validate Boarding pass or e-ticket with the airline system in real-time.
• Use face biometrics for processing Passengers at Checkpoints in the airport and also extend to Passengers without AADHAAR or Digi Yatra ID using biometric validation
• Phased rollout by all airports.
6. Rollout of “Digi Yatra” system with a digital “ID” backed by a strong verifiable government issued identity like AADHAAR, passport & others, enabling a seamless travel experience for Passengers at all airports across India.

Target airports and users

• The new process shall cater to all Passengers at any airport in India, be it Indian citizens (With or without Digi Yatra ID) or foreign nationals
• The process shall simplify & ease the Passenger process equally for different Passenger types
• First time and frequent flyers in India
• Group travelers and families
• Foreign citizens or tourists

Digi Yatra Journey Concept

Digi Yatra enrolment process

1. DigiYatra will have a centralised registration system for passengers. Passenger can create Digi Yatra ID in a central system by providing details such as Name, Email ID,  Mobile Number and Details of Identity (Voter Id, Driving License, Aadhar etc).
2. On submission Digi Yatra Id will be created. Pax can quote this number while booking the ticket. Pax data including Digi Yatra ID will be passed on to departure airport by the airlines.
3. On first travel, the Pax has to go to registration kiosk at the airport for validating the ID. In case of Aadhar the verification will be online. In case of other ID CISF will manually verify.
4. On successful verification the photo of pax will be added to Digi Yatra profile in central system.

Processes at airport

1. At the entry point E-Gate the pax will scan his boarding pass or e-ticket (Print or a soft copy in mobile).
2. On scanning the bar code/ QR code the system will validate the passenger details and flight details.
3. Digi Yatra ID will verify the identity by Face Recognition.
4. On successful verification of Ticket and Digi Yatra ID, e-Gate will open. Also, Face with ticket PNR is made in to a single token for the rest of the journey at the airport.
5. Passenger will gain entry to security area and aircraft Boarding through e-Gate operated on Facial Recognition System

Digi yatra Roadmap

Since its launch on December 1, 2022, at three airports, New Delhi, Varanasi, and Bengaluru, Digi Yatra has been implemented at four more airports, Vijayawada, Pune, Hyderabad, and Kolkata increasing the number of Digi Yatra airports to seven. Digi Yatra facility will be launched at 6 more airports namely Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Lucknow, Jaipur, and Guwahati airports in the month of August 2023. With the addition of the aforementioned six airports, the total number of Digi Yatra-enabled airports will become thirteen. 

To read the complete Digi Yatra document, click here.

Source : Ministry of Civil Aviation .