Soon, breeze through immigration ‘e-gates’

The e-gate was put on trial at Delhi airport in December last year for three months.

The bureau of immigration is all set to install automated e-gates, which will scan passenger information without any human intervention, at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport starting July.

Eight e-gates will be installed initially. (HT archive)

Officials said the facility, called the Trusted Travellers Program (TTP), will reduce the clearance time by almost half, and has been designed on the lines of the US’s Global Entry Program, which allows pre-approved immigration clearance for low-risk travellers. Initially, eight e-gates -- four each in departure and arrival immigration areas -- will be installed.

Officials claimed that the new facility will drastically cut down the time taken for immigration clearance. “On an average, the immigration clearance process currently takes about 1.5 to 2 minutes for a passenger at counters staffed by immigration officials at the Delhi airport. This is the time taken at the counter, and does not include time spent waiting in the queue. With the e-gates in place, as manual intervention will be zero, a passenger will be able to gain immigration clearance within 30-40 seconds,” said an officer, who wished not to be named.

Another officer aware of the development said on condition of anonymity that to get immigration clearance at the e-gates, passengers will need to scan their passports and boarding passes themselves. “After ascertaining that the passport and boarding pass are genuine, a camera attached to the scanner will click a picture of the passenger’s face. The e-gate will also scan their fingerprints, which will be matched with a database of the prohibited or blacklisted passengers within seconds. Once cleared, the e-gates will open, allowing the passenger to proceed,” the officer said.

Officers also said that initially, there will be staff present to assist the passengers in the process. The passengers’ data will also be recorded with the bureau of immigration for future use, they added.

The e-gate was put on trial at Delhi airport in December last year for three months. The officer said that after completion of the trials, they received approval from the MHA to proceed. “Orders have been placed to buy the technology and operations are expected to begin by July first week,” the officer added.