The air passengers can use a face scan as their boarding pass from 2022. The first airports to roll out the facility are Kolkata, Pune, Varanasi and Vijayawada.

What is the plan?

• The NEC Corporation Private Limited has been chosen by the Airport Authority of India to implement the project.
• The details of face recognition data are to be stored in Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem.
• To avail the service, the passenger has to send PNR, pax details and facial biometrics to the Biometric Boarding System of the departing airport through a mobile application. The passenger can also choose not to opt for the service.
• The Facial recognition is to be done using software designed by National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Part of Digi Yatra Policy

The project is to be implemented as part of Digi Yatra Policy. This policy is being implemented by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Under this, the ministry aims to provide biometric based digital processing of passengers at airports. This helps the passengers to walk through the security scanners swiftly. It removes redundancies and enhances resource utilization.