The Government is working on a DigiYatra plan to allow paperless travel for air passengers, including digital boarding passes at airports, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said here on Friday.
The Centre is looking to make either Aadhaar or passport mandatory to book air tickets so that passengers needn’t carry a printout of the ticket or document proof while entering the airport.
“We are working on a very exciting initiative – DigiYatra – where an appropriate identification proof will be associated with your PNR number, whether its Aadhaar or passport, and you will be securely identified so that no documents are needed,” Mr. Sinha said at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s annual session 2017 here.
He said a Digital Working Group has held several rounds of discussions on digital travel experience for air passengers. “You could basically start from where you are beginning your travel to where you are going to end your travel,” he said, adding passengers will soon be able to book taxi, make e-payments and get digital boarding pass through mobile phones.
The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad had started a pilot project in 2015 allowing passengers to enter Aadhaar number at kiosks set up at one of the entry gates. The Hyderabad airport plans to implement it soon at all the entry gates.
Similarly, Mumbai and Bengaluru airports had also shown interest in introducing biometric screening at airport entry gates.
“We are trying to take forward the best practices of our airports and airlines and we are trying to understand how best to establish a uniform set of protocol which can be applied across the system that can provide us an opportunity to deliver the seamless digital experience,” the Minister said.
Navi Mumbai airport
The Navi Mumbai airport will start operations in a phased manner beginning 2020, Mr. Sinha said. The plan is to make one terminal and one runway operational in the first phase.
“We are looking at it [Navi Mumbai airport] in phases. Our hope is that sometime in 2020, we will be able to get the first phase up and running,” Mr. Sinha said.
He said several issues including “tricky terrain”, environmental clearance, resettlement and connectivity are holding up the commencement of operations at the Navi Mumbai airport. The GVK-led Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) had recently won the bid to operate the new airport.
