New Delhi: The Centre on Friday made the Digi Yatra facility available at nine more airports in the country, taking the total to 24 airports where the digital platform has simplified the cumbersome task of managing multiple documents for millions.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu inaugurated the Digi Yatra facility at Visakhapatnam International Airport and virtually launched the facility for eight other airports at Coimbatore, Dabolim, Indore, Bagdogra, Ranchi, Patna, Raipur and Bhubaneshwar. Aviation Minister highlighted how Digi Yatra simplifies the process by managing boarding passes, ID proofs and luggage tags while navigating the airport crowd.
“The airport entry time for a passenger has reduced from an average 15 seconds in manual process to 5 seconds. Over 55 lakh users have already downloaded the app, and more than three crore passengers have used Digi Yatra to travel,” Minister Naidu informed. Since its launch of the first Digi Yatra facility at three airports — New Delhi, Varanasi and Bengaluru on December 1, 2022 — the total number of Digi Yatra-enabled airports is now 24.
“Its introduction was very well in time, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the need for minimising physical contact became more urgent than ever,” said the minister. Digi Yatra offered contactless and paperless processing at key airport checkpoints. Since its inception, the system has helped save thousands of sheets of paper daily across airports, supporting our broader goal of sustainable development in the aviation sector, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. On the issue of data security, Aviation Minister reaffirmed the government’s commitment, saying that “even on the floor of Lok Sabha, I have emphasised that Digi Yatra is built on a foundation of robust data security.”
“I would like to put it very clearly that there is no central storage of passengers’ personally identifiable information (PII). All passenger data is encrypted and stored securely in their smartphones, shared only temporarily with the origin airport, and destroyed within 24 hours of departure,” the minister emphasised. Digi Yatra helps travellers pass through various checkpoints at the airports through paperless and contactless processing using facial features to validate their identity and travel details.
IANS
