New Delhi, October 4: The government has unveiled Digi Yatra under which facial recognition will be used as the biometric for entry into airports for domestic flights. It means air passengers will no longer need ID proof and boarding cards to board on domestic flights. Initially, the facility will be available at eight airports in the country.

Under Digi Yatra initiative, facial recognition of air passengers will be taken on their first visit of the airport after they register themselves on an aviation ministry portal. Identity card such as passport, Aadhaar and driving licence will be required for registration. Once the facial recognition is taken, the passenger's face will be his/her ID and boarding pass for domestic flights.

Airline and airport databases will be linked to the Digi Yatra system that will show details of passengers' flight and that they have been through a security check. The facial recognition is not mandatory, and only those who will register for the facility will have the benefits. Other passengers can go through the existing procedure if they want.

The facial recognition system will be implemented at the PPP metro airports – Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru – and the four run by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) – Varanasi in the first phase. Air passengers will have to stand for facial recognition after every five years.

“Facial recognition was chosen over thumb impressions and iris scan. It is the norm globally. Face is the least private biometric indicator. During a scan, it breaks the face into thousands of units and matches them with the record. So even if someone’s forehead is bandaged due to an injury, it will still be able to match the biometrics," a source was quoted as saying by TOI.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 04, 2018 01:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).