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Pune airport to launch DigiYatra early next year
Pune airport will introduce DigiYatra - a virtual method of facial verification – to reduce congestion outside the airport by early next year as soon as the first round of trials is complete, said Santosh Doke, Pune airport director
Pune airport will introduce DigiYatra - a virtual method of facial verification – to reduce congestion outside the airport by early next year as soon as the first round of trials is complete, said Santosh Doke, Pune airport director. “The trials are underway and the new DigiYatra service will be introduced once we get the go-ahead from the ministry of civic aviation,” Doke said.
The new system – which promises a seamless entry and embarkation process for air passengers – is the need of the hour, especially after Friday when Pune airport witnessed the highest single-day traffic since 2019. On Friday, the airport handled as many as 31,052 passengers on 93 flights. With facial recognition being the sole connecting point, DigiYatra will help all passenger data to be automatically processed at various checkpoints, including the security check areas.
Elaborating on the congestion inside and outside the airport, Doke said, “For the festive season, we are anticipating overcrowding. Hence, we have also allocated more manpower, X-ray machines for baggage scan, and two to three ‘May I help you’ desks apart from bifurcating the international departure section to operate akin to the domestic departure section so that passengers do not face any issues.”
“Congestion at the airport intensifies as the same road is used for arrivals and departures. Hence, for multi-level parking infrastructure, we have constructed a foot-over bridge so that the people from the arrivals section can take the bridge and go directly to the Ola and Uber pickup zones.”
However, flyers continue to remain unhappy with the surge of passengers at both the entry and exit gates and inside the airport. A majority of flyers expressed the need for better enforcement of airport rules, especially with the newly-constructed Aero mall which has increased the chances of congestion from non-air travellers.
A passenger requesting anonymity said, “I always come at least four hours earlier because I know that I won’t be able to make it in time even if I come two hours earlier, according to the advisories.”
Some passengers complained that having only two terminals at the entry gate is not enough to accommodate so many passengers and leads to congestion at the baggage- scan and drop counters and security checks.
Keshav Mishra, a passenger who flew from Pune to Lucknow yesterday said, “There was only one bag scanner that was operating and the X-rays from other airlines were lying idle. At the security check, people were fighting for trays and there was no staff available either. The management should ensure that the procedures are completed in the least possible time.”
While Pune typically sees about 9,000 passengers per day, it rose to 14,000 due to festive season.
Neeraj Adkar, who travelled from Pune to Ahmedabad said. “It took me 30 minutes to enter the gate as there was a huge queue outside. After that, the security check took an extra half-an-hour and I just about made it into the aircraft as my boarding time was nearly over. There should be more bag scanners as there was only one operable scanner.”
Speaking about passenger complaints, Doke said, “We provide only the infrastructure. For cancelled flights, there can be issues with the airlines such as technical problems, unavailable crewmembers, aviation restrictions from the departing airport. Nonetheless, we try to provide a seamless experience.”
