Digi Yatra facility, which is currently
available at 13 airports for domestic passengers, will be set up at 25 additional
airports in 2024, said Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Digi Yatra provides for paperless
experience, contactless, seamless movement of passengers at various check
points at airports based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT).
At a briefing in the national capital on
“Congestion at Airport”, Scindia said Digi Yatra will be introduced at 14
airports in the first phase and another 11 airports in the second phase next
year.
By the end of 2024, Digi Yatra will be
available at 25 more airports and the total number of airports that will have
the facility will increase to 38, he said.
Additionally, big airports, which
started looking overcrowded on weekends with aerobridges, will be permitted to
have shops only after ensuring needed space for necessities like main
touchpoints such as security and seating by factoring in projected traffic
growth.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation and
DigiYatra Foundation jointly introduced the facility as a measure towards
creating a digitally empowered society and decongesting the major airports
across the country.
Scindia shared multiple steps have been
taken including the additional manpower deployment by the Central Industrial
Security Force (CISF) and reinforcement of Bureau of Immigration (BoI) staff
and departure entry lanes to ease congestion.
Providing details of 16 airports
including metro cities, he said, “Departure and entry lanes have been increased
from 213 to 312, which is a 46 per cent increase in the last one year”.
Scindia informed that number of XIBS X-ray
machines has increased from 234 to 312 in airports all over Bharat.
Between November 2022 and 2023, there
was a 10 per cent increase in passenger traffic from 11.6 million to 12.6
million. Congestion at major airports during festive seasons was a cause for
concern.
There were longer waiting times for
passenger processing at various touch points, including entry gates, the
terminal building, check-in counters of airlines, pre-embarkation security
check, immigration, emigration and waiting space at the security hold area.
As per the Ministry of Civil Aviation,
the number of passengers carried by domestic airlines during January- November
2023 was 1382.34 lakhs as against 1105.10 lakhs during the corresponding period
of the previous year, thereby registering an yearly growth of 25.09 per cent and
monthly growth of 9.06 per cent.
It said during November 2023, a total of
601 passenger-related complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic
airlines.
“The number of complaints per 10,000
passengers for November 2023 has been around 0.47,” the ministry data showed.
NE Watch Desk
