Hyderabad airport to get facial recognition tech by March 2023

Hyderabad: The Union minister of state for civil aviation, General V.K Singh (retd), on Monday informed the Parliament that the Hyderabad airport along with five other airports will have facial recognition technology by March 2023.

"Facial recognition system is part of the government's Digi Yatra initiative to provide a seamless and hassle-free experience to passengers at airports. It is to be implemented in a phased manner. The first phase is planned at Kolkata, Varanasi, Pune, Vijayawada, Bangalore, Delhi, and Hyderabad airports by March 2023," said General Singh (retd). Earlier, the technology was supposed to come up at four airports in March 2022.

Preliminary testing of the Digi Yatra biometric boarding system with registration for the 'Day of Travel' at these airports has been completed. The requirement for security is dynamic in nature. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the regulatory authority for civil aviation security in the country, in consultation with other agencies and stakeholders concerned, reviews the security arrangements at airports from time to time and upgrades the same as per requirement.

AAI has engaged NEC Corporation Private Limited for the implementation of facial recognition technology-based biometric boarding system (BBS) at Varanasi, Pune, Kolkata, and Vijayawada airports as part of Digi Yatra.

As per the Digi Yatra policy, registering for the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem will be optional for passengers. To avail of the Digi Yatra services, passengers can send their travel details (Pax details, PNR, and facial biometrics) through an app to the biometric boarding system of the respective departing airport. Moreover, if for a particular journey, the passenger does not want to avail of the Digi Yatra services, then the passenger has an option to not send the data and use the existing manual process at airports.