The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is working on the country's first facial recognition technology-based biometric boarding system for passengers at Varanasi, Pune, Kolkata and Vijayawada airports, said Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation General V K Singh (retd) to a question in Lok Sabha.
The biometric boarding system is part of the first phase of Digi Yatra scheme's implementation.
He added that the proposed Digi Yatra Central Eco-system is planned to go live in March 2022.
NEC Corporation had earlier bagged contracts from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to deploy facial recognition-based passenger identification technology in four airports in the country, in Varanasi, Vijayawada, Pune and Kolkata.
What is the plan?
• The NEC Corporation Private Limited has been chosen by the Airport Authority of India to implement the project.
• The details of face recognition data are to be stored in Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem.
• To avail the service, the passenger has to send PNR, pax details and facial biometrics to the Biometric Boarding System of the departing airport through a mobile application. The passenger can also choose not to opt for the service.
• The Facial recognition is to be done using software designed by National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Part of Digi Yatra Policy
The project is to be implemented as part of Digi Yatra Policy by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Under this, the ministry aims to provide biometric based digital processing of passengers at airports. This helps the passengers to walk through the security scanners swiftly. It removes redundancies and enhances resource utilization.
