India To Rollout Facial Recognition Systems At Airports From Dec 1

All decks have finally been cleared as the Union Civil Aviation Ministry reportedly plans to begin the full-fledged rollout of its facial recognition-based digital processing of flyers from December 1, 2022.

Sources told Times Now that the Digi Yatra project will be operationalised in phases. In the first phase, the service will be rolled out at Delhi, Bengaluru and Varanasi airports on December 1. 

In the next phase, it will be deployed at Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune airports by March 2023. 

At the outset, the Digi Yatra service will purportedly be only available for domestic passengers. Passengers will be mandated to register on the DigiYatra app through their respective Aadhaar cards to avail the service.

This follows the previous timelines released by central authorities to kick off the service’s rollout. What is different is that the government wants to go ahead with the full-fledged rollout and implementation of the service during the same period. 

This comes months after a beta version of the service was introduced at Delhi and Bengaluru airports on Independence Day this year.

The initiative will automate the entry and verification of passengers at all checkpoints and will use facial features to establish a traveller’s identity and link it to their respective boarding passes. 

The users will be able to avail the service by downloading the Digi Yatra app. Among other things, the app also hosts a decentralised mobile wallet-based identity management platform, allowing users to store their travel documents and speed up check-in at airports. 

A brainchild of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), the initiative operates under the purview of the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem, which then operates under the oversight of the Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF). 

Set up in 2019, DYF is a joint venture between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other airports including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and others. The foundation has been tasked with developing the blueprint and operationalising the facial recognition project on ground zero. 

Under Cloud Of Criticism

The rollout comes weeks after government think tank NITI Aayog flagged key concerns regarding the deployment of facial recognition technologies at the airport. 

Seeking the need for instituting data protection laws to govern the use, the paper proposed rigorous data processing, storage and retention standards to address associated privacy issues adequately. 

The think tank also called for more clarity around the deletion of facial biometric data from the database of airports and related registries to ensure adherence to norms. 

These issues are in line with grievances highlighted by other internet advocacy groups and activists as well. Many have panned facial recognition technologies citing ‘pervasive surveillance’  while others have raised alarm over the potential misuse of passengers’ data. 

India is currently home to 126 facial recognition technology (FRT) systems installed across the length and breadth of the country, with a total financial outlay of INR 1,499.40 Cr. Maharashtra leads the country with 13 FRTs, followed closely by Delhi with 12 and Gujarat with 8 such systems.