The Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru could soon use Aadhaar for identification and allow travellers to board their airplanes without a ticket in hand, by the end of this year.
Speaking at an interaction with representatives of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) on Wednesday, Hari Marar, Managing Director and President of the Bengaluru International Airport Ltd (BIAL) confirmed that the project to use Aadhaar identification to remove the need for printed tickets and extensive security checks, was being considered.
With this, the Bengaluru airport would become the first airport in India to be completely Aadhar-enabled.
“This sort of single-token system is being attempted at other international airports globally, but it will take them another six years to develop a biometric database of their passengers. We already have a database and can kickstart it within four to six months,” said Hari Marar, managing director and president of the BIAL, speaking to The Hindu.
The project has been taken up by the innovation centre developed by Accenture and BIAL. In a two-month pilot held last year, the BIAL trials had already been conducted to showcase the features to officials from the Civic Aviation Ministry.
“After a passenger links travel documents (tickets, for instance) with Aadhaar, machines within the airport can verify the biometric signature with the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) database as well as with the airlines. Within the airport, cameras can scan the face of the commuters and open boarding gates,” Hari Marar told The Hindu.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation reportedly began the process of linking database of airlines and airports with passenger identities in 2017.
The provision of Aadhaar will however be an additional facility at the airport to speed up the process of handling tickets, ID, luggage in the travelling experience.