General (Retd.) VK Singh, Minister of State (MoS) in Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) in a written reply to Lok Sabha on Thursday, August 5, 2021, said work has been allotted for implementation of Biometric Boarding System (BBS) at six airports under ministry’s DigiYatra policy.  

BBS will make use of facial recognition technology at six airports to provide a contactless, seamless and paperless handling of passengers at airports from the entry gate of the terminal to the boarding point. These six airports include Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Varanasi and Vijayawada. The project is at the trial stage and will be rolled out to other airports in a phased manner upon successful completion, according to a statement issued by MoCA on MoS Singh’s reply to the Lower House of the Parliament.  

The system is already operational at the Bengaluru International Airport for certain flights. Under the optional digital boarding process, passengers can enrol their identification and biometric data along with flight details before entering the terminal.

The DigiYatra policy was released by the MoCA in August 2018. The digital boarding system or e-boarding process enables passengers to enter airports and board flights using the Aadhaar number and mobile phone number. As passengers travel through the airport they are authenticated and verified at every touchpoint by state-of-the-art biometric technology.

Among others, the Ministry also informed the Parliament that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to invest around Rs 25,000 crores in the next 4-5 years for expansion and development of existing and new terminals, using modern technology.

MoS (MoCA) General (Retd.) Singh in his Lok Sabha missive also added that the route rationalization in the Indian airspace is also being carried out in coordination with Indian Air Force, using modern air traffic flow management techniques to develop shorter flight routes and lower fuel consumption by airlines.

He added greater use of digital technology is being encouraged at air cargo terminals to enhance efficiency and to reduce dwell times. 

E-Governance is being enabled at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) for most of their stakeholder interactions and internal processes, he further.