DigiYatra App’s Beta Version Successfully Launched at BLR Airport

Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) has been

pioneering the DigiYatra effort from its early concept days and pilot trials

have been held since January 2017 at BLR Airport. DigiYatra – the contactless,

seamless processing of passengers at airports, based on the use of single token

face biometrics for verification of passengers is a significant project led by

the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Government of India.

For the first phase rollout of the DigiYatra Central

Ecosystem (DYCE), BLR Airport is one of the two selected airports in India and

passengers experienced this new-age, contactless and seamless process that

commenced on 15th August 2022.

At BLR Airport, the DigiYatra Biometric boarding

system at e-gates is operational and being rolled out at full scale for all

domestic airlines in a phased manner, covering checkpoints for domestic travel.

Passengers experienced a seamless check-in, passed through security, and

boarded their respective flights using their single token face biometric for

validating their identity and their boarding pass

Vistara Airlines and AirAsia are the two airlines that

are currently integrated with DigiYatra. Passengers can easily enroll on the

DigiYatra app from the comfort of their homes. The app is currently available

on Google Playstore for Android users, and an iOS version will be made

available in one month.

“It is our constant endeavour at BIAL to offer

innovative ways to simplify the passenger journey and make it as seamless as

possible. The Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem implementation is one more step

towards achieving this. We are glad to be part of the first phase rollout and

value the trust reposed in us by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, DGCA, and the

Government of India. As the new gateway to India, BLR Airport is keen to be at

the forefront of change and innovation,” said Hari Marar, MD & CEO

at Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (BIAL).

The DYCE is being built on the standards defined by

the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which include Self Sovereign Identity (SSI)

with Verifiable Credentials (VCs), Decentralised Identifiers (DIDs) with a

trust layer of a Distributed Ledger and ensuring adoption of Privacy by Design

and Privacy by Default as the fundamental tenets. This ensures privacy issues

are taken care of and passengers will not have to worry about sharing their

data as it is secure and will be deleted after 24 hours following their travel.

DYCE is the initiative of the Digi Yatra Foundation

(DYF) which was set up as a joint venture company in 2019, and BIAL is one of

the key shareholders. The DigiYatra Foundation will be a pan-India entity and the

custodian of the Passenger ID validation process.