After Delhi's IGI Airport, Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport and Varanasi's Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport will provide contactless entry to passengers at airports by using facial recognition technology-Digi-Yatri service. 

The Ministry of Civil Aviation had launched the Digi Yatra Facility at nine additional airports across India. The inauguration was led by the Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Shri Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu. He has virtually unveiled the facility at Birsa Munda Airport, Ranchi, at 10:30 AM on September 6, 2024.

The new service will ensure "contactless and seamless" processing of passengers through various checkpoints at the airports using facial features to establish their identity which could be linked to the boarding pass. 

Here's how the process works. 

Passengers need to scan the QR code on the boarding pass with the mobile Digi-Yatri app to create travel credentials using Aadhaar and upload an image of themselves. 

At the airport, they can scan their boarding pass and the e-gate will capture their face and match with the information uploaded by them. 

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Once verified, the gates will open and the passenger can move to the security check area and boarding gate where their face will be captured again. 

Upon verification, the passenger can move ahead and board their plane. 

There is no central storage of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The passenger's ID and travel credentials are stored in a secure wallet on the passenger's smartphone itself. 

The service was launched at other airports in Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, and Vijayawada in 2023. Gradually, the technology is being implemented across the country. Ranchi got the due on September 6, 2024.