Digi Yatra Registration: How to Enroll?

The Government of India (GOI) has taken multiple steps to digitize the nation. It promotes digitalization everywhere, including airports. In this article, we’ll see all the details regarding the ‘Digi Yatra’ initiative launched by the Ministry of Civil Aviation a few years back.

What is Digi Yatra?

Rolled out by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in June 2019, the Digi Yatra is an optional self-boarding method already available at many airports in the country. It was launched to provide a seamless air travel experience to the flyers.

Initially, people flying by air were put through countless security checks. While such checks are important to recognise and identify the flyer, they also eat a large chunk of time. The government is slowly changing that with Digi Yatra.

The on-boarding method turns your face into your boarding pass, which you can also use for future air travel. The system digitally processes passengers at airports, removing the need to verify their documents at multiple checkpoints.

Passengers arriving at the airports can directly head to the e-gate and scan the boarding pass or e-ticket. Once validated using the passenger dataset, a single biometric face token, the gate opens. Passengers can follow the same procedure for the rest of the journey at the airport.

The Civil Aviation ministry aims to digitize everything, from ticket booking to airport entry and boarding pass security check-in. The technology is already operational at Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Varanasi, Pune and Vijayawada airports.

What is the Digi Yatra Enrollment process?

The Digi Yatra process is as follows:

Head to the Digi Yatra registration kiosk at the airport.
Enter your name, email, and mobile number.
Choose which ID you want to share. If you choose Aadhaar, then the Aadhaar info is completed as per UIDAI guidelines.
The kiosk camera will then capture your face and iris and Aadhaar validation will be done through iris biometrics.
After completion, a UID Token of 72 characters is sent to the Digi Yatra platform.
A separate Digi Yatra ID is created and sent to the passenger via email and mobile.
The Digi Yatra ID can be used for future travel booking.

Process at the Airport:

The pax will scan his boarding card or e-ticket at the E-Gate entrance point (Print or a soft copy in mobile).
The system will confirm the passenger and flight details after scanning the bar code/ QR code.
Face Recognition will be used to verify the identity of Digi Yatra ID users.
The e-Gate will open once the Ticket and Digi Yatra ID have been verified. Besides, the face with the PNR ticket is combined into a single token for the rest of the journey at the airport.
Passengers will enter the security area and board the plane using an e-gate that uses a facial recognition system.

Digi Yatra Journey Concept:

What are the main objectives of Digi Yatra?

The government listed the following as its main objectives behind Digi Yatra:

Enhance passenger experience

As alluded to earlier, air travel isn’t always the greatest experience. A big reason for that is the multiple security checks and documents verification. Digi Yatra is the government’s effort to change that. It hopes to deliver a seamless, paperless and hassle-free experience to all passengers across all check-points at all Indian airports.

Reduce operational costs

Digitization reduces human interference and dependence. Thanks to Digi Yatra, the Ministry of Civil Aviation can reduce operational costs, remove redundancies, and better utilize their resources.

Improve security

Digi Yatra can also enhance security standards at the airport. The system can quickly catch an unidentified flyer and prevent him/her from entering the airport. It is much better than the current security standards at many airports.

What are the key features of Digi Yatra?

Some of the standpoint features of Digi Yatra include:

Centralised registration system for passengers, with each getting a unique ID on booking the tickets.
ID can be created by sharing name, e-mail id, mobile number and details of any identity proof, including Aadhaar.
A biometrics-based digital processing system for passenger entry.
Voluntary for passengers to opt for facial recognition biometric for air travel.
Real-time notifications about congestion and delays of flights.

Target Aiports and Users:

All passengers, whether Indian citizens (with or without a Digi Yatra ID) or foreign nationals, will be served using the new procedure at any airport in India.

2. The method should simplify and ease the Passenger process for all types of passengers.