India to extend Digi Yatra to global travelers, speeding up immigration: report

India may soon extend its Digi Yatra facial recognition technology, currently available for domestic passengers, to international travelers to speed up immigration, Mint reported

The Digi Yatra project, run by the ministry of civil aviation, entails biometric-based digital processing of airport passengers. Domestic passengers must register on the Digi Yatra app using Aadhar to avail of this facility.

Sharing passenger credentials with immigration authorities in advance will speed up the immigration process at airports in India and overseas, according to the Digi Yatra Foundation, which conceived the Digi Yatra project.

The prototype testing of electronic passport-based enrolment is currently underway. Once the test is done, the Digi Yatra Foundation should be able to release it as an update on the app in the next couple of months, Mint reported citing the foundation’s chief executive, Suresh Khadakbhavi.

Since its launch in December 2022, Digi Yatra’s Android and iOS applications have onboarded 4 million travelers.

According to the foundation, Digi Yatra has an up to 40% adoption rate at 16 airports and 70% at smaller airports such as Varanasi and Vijayawada. In the next two months, it said it will add 13 more airports, including Bagdogra, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Indore, and Srinagar, to its network.

With the latest addition, Digi Yatra will cater to 90% of the country’s air traffic across 29 airports, it added.