Bangalore Mirror | Soon, your face will be your passport at KIA

Mar 30,2021

Your travel to Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport may already be a tedious affair duue to the congested roads. But the Ministry of Civil Aviation hopes to make your journey through the airport a lot faster, smoother and hassle-free.

According to a report in the Bangalore Mirror, entry into the airport, security check and aircraft boarding will be processed based on facial biometric systems soon.

The report says that the first phase of DigiYatra will be implemented by the end of the year at several airports, including Kempegowda International Airport (KIA). This paper-free journey experience also promises to give air travellers a seamless and hassle-free journey.

This DigiYatra initiative is the brainchild of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. It will use the facial biometrics system to identify travellers at checkpoints like an entry point, entry into security, and aircraft boarding.

In July 2019, as part of the DigiYatra, Early Go Live, a fully biometric-based self-boarding solution for a seamless flow from registration to boarding was launched by the KIA, says the Bangalore Mirror report.

It adds that DigiYatra was enabled for Air Vistara flights in 2019, followed by AirAsia India flights last year. "Facial Recognition System is part of the DigiYatra initiative of the government. Digi Yatra aims at the seamless facilitation of passengers. DigiYatra is being implemented in a phased manner. The project is at the trial stage and the first phase implementation is being planned at Kolkata, Varanasi, Pune, Vijaywada, Bengaluru and Hyderabad Airports, by the end of 2021," said Hardeep Singh Puri, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, to a question in the Lok Sabha about whether the government proposes to implement a system like Face Recognition System at airports.

So, Bengalureans can rejoice at the fact that BIAL has said that after the completion of the final phase of the project, it is expected to be the largest deployment of an end-to-end paperless biometric programme in Asia with over 350 passenger touchpoints at KIA's Terminal 1. The Bangalore Mirror adds that the project will be implemented not just at KIA's exiting Terminal-1 but also at the upcoming Terminal-2 project.