APATA representatives extending support to the flood victims of Vijayawada through Union Minister of Civil Aviation K. Rammohan Naidu, in Visakhapatnam on Friday. MP M. Sribharath, MLA s and MLC are also seen.
| Photo Credit: BY ARRANGEMENT
Union Minister of Civil Aviation Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu launched ‘Digi Yatra’ at Visakhapatnam International Airport, and at eight other airports in country through video conference, from here, on Friday. Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol participated in the conference from Pune.
Addressing the gathering, Mr. Rammohan Naidu said that the ‘Digi Yatra’ technology, launched in December 2022, was intended to provide ‘contactless’, touch-free and seamless travel experience to air passengers at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 3 crore passengers have utilised the facility, so far, and 54 lakh people have downloaded the Digi Yatra app. While physical verification of data and documents could take a few minutes, it would just take 5 seconds through the Digi Yatra mode.
Allaying apprehensions expressed by some sections of the people, in the past, he reiterated that there was absolutely no cause for worry in using the Digi Yatra app. “The data will undergo self-destruction in the database after 24 hours. It will be only be stored in your (passenger’s) mobile phone. The data will not be store anywhere else. I appeal to everyone to make use of the facility for a seamless travel experience,” the Union Minister explained.
The Digi Yatra facility was introduced at 15 airports in the first phase, and today (September 6) it was being extended to nine more airports. It would be extended to all other airports in a phased manner.
Sea planes would be introduced at Prakasam barrage in Vijayawada in October. Measures were also being taken to introduce helicopter services in the Himalayan region and the North East. “I am going to make air travel not only seamless but also more affordable. The Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), introduced in 2016, to provide connectivity to airports, which were poorly connected, has been extended by 10 more years. The number of airports, in India, which was 74 in 2014, has increased to 157 today and our plan is to increase it to 400 in the next 25 years,” he said.
Mr. Rammohan Naidu also briefed about the upcoming Bhogapuram International Airport and the plan to improve road connectivity from Visakhapatnam to Bhogapuram both via the National Highway and also through the Beach Road. The cargo facility at Visakhapatnam airport would be modernised.
Deputy Director General in the Ministry of Civil Aviation Pramod Kumar Thakur and Chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI) M. Suresh also spoke.
Visakhapatnam MP M. Sribharat, Visakhapatnam West MLA PGVR Naidu, MLA s Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy and Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu and MLC V. Chiranjeevi Rao were among those who were on the dais. AP Air Travellers Association (APATA) representatives K. Kumar Raja, O. Naresh Kumar and DS Varma handed over support to the flood victims of Vijayawada by sending 50,000 biscuit packets.
Airport Director S. Raja Reddy proposed a vote of thanks. The eight other airports where Digi Yatra was launched today are: Patna, Raipur, Bhubaneswar, Goa (Dabolim), Indore, Ranchi, Coimbatore and Bagdogra.
Published – September 06, 2024 04:56 pm IST