KOLKATA: Hundreds of flyers were forced to stand in serpentine queues at the Kolkata airport on Sunday as the Digi Yatra facial recognition system suffered a prolonged glitch, slowing entry and security checks throughout the morning and in the afternoon.Frequent flyers, who usually opt for biometric-based access so they can have seamless movement from the entry to the terminal till the boarding gate, found the automated gates unresponsive as the system repeatedly failed to capture or authenticate faces of registered users.With e-gates refusing to open, following a “glitch in the central server” of Digi Yatra, passengers were redirected to conventional counters for physical verification of boarding passes and identity cards, triggering congestions.
The disruption began around 6am and intensified as the passenger volume swelled. Officials said that while a handful of users passed through the system in the initial hours, the situation deteriorated during the rush hours when “almost all gates crashed together”. The malfunction persisted through late morning, leaving many passengers worried that they would miss their flights.Social media was flooded with complaints. “Horrible situation at Kolkata airport. None of the Digi Yatra gates are working. Was misguided and waste of time. People panicked due to fear of missing flights. CISF was of no help,” a passenger, Arti, posted on X.Another flyer, Vishnu Mohan, wrote: “Kolkata airport Digi Yatra gates are the worst and not even working. We have such a great feature to make travel seamless but then airports like this take down the reputation.”
Even after partial restoration around 2pm, many passengers reported continued difficulties in facial scanning, with the system either failing to recognise users or declining to retrieve passenger data linked to boarding passes.A senior airport official attributed the disruption to a malfunction in the central server that supports the Digi Yatra infrastructure. “There was a technical glitch in the central server. The moment we learnt about the problem, we escalated the matter. By afternoon, the situation started getting better. But we admit there were problems in the morning peak hour,” the official said.Introduced at the Kolkata airport in 2023 under the Centre’s digital aviation push, Digi Yatra is designed to offer a seamless, paperless airport journey through a facial recognition technology. Available at terminal entry gates, security checkpoints and boarding gates for domestic departures, the system allows passengers to bypass manual document checks by scanning their faces at dedicated kiosks.To avail of the facility, travellers have to download the Digi Yatra app, complete Aadhaar-based KYC verification and upload their boarding pass details. Once registered, their biometric credentials are used to authenticate identity at multiple airport points, significantly reducing the wait time.Sunday’s failure effectively neutralised that advantage. With the biometric lanes shut, everyone had to get their documents checked manually by CISF personnel, resulting in slower passenger movement and snarls.“Digi Yatra not functioning at Kolkata Airport, leading to chaos and long queues. No clarity, no crowd management. We speak of Viksit Bharat, AI and technology stack, but where is basic reliability?” another passenger posted online.
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