Lok Sabha Question No. 867 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-12-02
Subject: Facial Recognition Technology
Ministry: CIVIL AVIATION
Asked by: Feroze Varun Gandhi, (Dr.) Ram Shankar Katheria

867.

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF CIVIL AVIATION LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. : 867

(To be answered on the 2 nd  December 2021)

## FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY

SHRI FEROZE VARUN GANDHI

DR. RAM SHANKAR KATHERIA

Will the Minister of CIVIL AVIATION

be pleased to state:-

- (a)  the  details  of  the  airports  in  the  country  where  facial  recognition technology  (FRT)  has  been  introduced;
- (b) whether any timeline has been fixed by the Government to implement the system;
- (c) the details of private companies providing FRT services at the airports;
- (d) whether the selection of the companies was done through tendering and if so, the details thereof;
- (e)  whether  passengers  have  been  given  the  option  to  opt  out  of  FRT processing  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof;
- (f)  the  safegaurds  taken  by  the  Government  to  prevent  the  leakage  of passenger data; and
- (g) the facilities that will come up with the implementation of the system?

## ANSWER

Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION

(GEN. (DR) V. K. SINGH (RETD))

(a) Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) has not yet been introduced at any of the Airport in India. However, Airports Authority of India is working on a project of Facial Recognition Technology based Biometric Boarding System as part of 1st phase of Digi Yatra Implementation at 04 Airports (Varanasi, Pune, Kolkata and Vijayawada).

(b) The proposed Digi Yatra Central Eco-system is planned to go live in March 2022. It is to be scaled up in a phased manner for adoption across various airports of the country. (c)  AAI  has  engaged  M/s  NEC  Corporation  Private  Limited  for implementation of Facial Recognition Technology based Biometric Boarding System (BBS) at Varanasi, Pune, Kolkata and Vijayawada airports as part of DigiYatra. (d) Yes Sir, the selection of the vendor was done through open tender process. An open tender was floated on NIC CPP portal. Name of tender is "Selection of Managed Service Provider (MSP) for Designing, Development, Testing, Implementation, and O&M of E-Boarding - Biometric Boarding System (BBS)"  with tender id 2018\_AAI\_16909\_1. (e) Yes Sir, as per the Digi Yatra policy, registering for the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem is optional to the passenger. For availing the Digi Yatra services, passenger  would  send  the  travel  details  (Pax  details,  PNR  and  Facial Biometrics)  through  an  app  to  the  Biometric  Boarding  System  of  the respective  departing  airport. Moreover, if for a particular journey, the passenger does not want to avail the Digi Yatra services then the passenger has an option to not send the data and use existing manual process at airports. (f) The Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem envisages assessments (by independent teams to assess the level of security and system resilience to protect PII) and periodic audits by governing/regulatory bodies e.g. CERT-IN and/or STQC etc., twice every year. Facial recognition is as per Industry ISO standards with best in class NIST listed algorithms complying to Data Privacy and Data protection requirement as laid down by Government. Data shared by the Passenger is to be used for the purpose defined and would not be shared with any other external stakeholders. It is important to note that data shared by passenger is to be retained during the transit of the passenger at the airport and will not be retained for more than 24 hours after Take-off / departure of the flight. (g) With the implementation of Digi Yatra, a seamless travel for passenger is being envisaged. Further, it will facilitate optimized utilization of resources of airports, airlines etc. Digi Yatra Central Eco-system is aligned to the global processes  of  IATA  Travel  Pass  for  interoperability  for  a  seamless

- international  travel.
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