Air passengers at Chennai airport continue to wait for DigiYatra

DigiYatra facility at Chennai airport delayed due to pending security clearance, aims to reduce passenger queue time.

Air passengers who are keen to use the DigiYatra facility at Chennai airport may have to wait a little longer as the final security clearance is yet to come.

This facility, already been installed, is being used by lakhs of passengers in several key airports in the country, including New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Varanasi, Kochi, Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. It was introduced with the objective of cutting down the time a passenger spends in queues for multiple checks before boarding the aircraft. While it was earlier stated that the city airport will get DigiYatra by the end of March, air passengers have not been able to access the facility yet.

Officials of Airports Authority of India (AAI) said they continue to wait for the clearance from the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and only when they receive it, can the facility be launched in Chennai too.

“Before March, we completed making all the necessary preparations, putting in place the infrastructure required for DigiYatra and finished trials too. Subsequently, the BCAS officials visited the terminals and carried out an inspection. We are hoping to get the final approval this week,” an official said.

Sources said, BCAS had put forth some queries to which the AAI had responded as well. “One of the main concerns is, the authorities in New Delhi do not want the problems which occurred in DigiYatra in other airports to recur here. For instance, tailgating is happening in some of the airports. Hence, they are trying to iron out those issues before implementing the facility here,” he added.