DIGI YATRA

 I was on a 2-day Business visit to Bombay (Kalyan). (Boy it is pouring a lot here- I am reminded of 26th July 2005 when 900mm rain fell in 24 hrs and how I escaped that day by a few hours by taking an earlier flight out of Bombay on Monsanto Business travel to Aurangabad!)!!!

I used DIGIYATRA at Bangalore Airport, for the first time despite the APP being on my iPhone for the past 3-4 months. (It is an app equivalent to USA-TSI Check fast lane linked to facial recognition to the biometrics of your Aadhar card) It is a digital, paperless, identity system that allows you to go through entry into the airport, security, and into aircraft at the Boarding gate. There are special lines set up for every juncture for Digiyatra passengers. While I could whistle in seconds everywhere, as usual, the bags through the security check (Carryon bag took its own time due to ancient mummy-style conveyor and incompetent manual checks which can take their own time to deduct /infer that the bag is good to go) nullified all the time gained. (Like our toll collection on the highway where it can take > 5 min to pay Rs. 100 in-car queue nullifying 100km /hr racing to reach the toll plaza!!)...!  Such are the things!! Unless they bring in American-type bag scanners that roll past in a flash, these systems would have bottlenecks and impede faster action. Manual inspection is never the way in 1000 passengers/hr, unless u train a few good people and make things go fast as happens in Dubai, Doha etc. 

Yes, one pleasant thing today is that my carryon bags came through unscathed and I didn't get into an argument with CISF security who check my bag even after the scan (It is usually diverted for further manual check) and nothing would turn up and as usual they are not accountable to answer me as to why my bag went on the special scrutiny lane, thus wasting my time. The Airport security is as unaccountable for anything, as Joseph Robbinete Biden Jr. 

Would I try again DIGIYATRA? I may give another couple of shots, then decide that I would rather undergo the torture of normal lines knowing that I have 0 expectations of anything good happening in Indian Airports, and then get a pleasant experience if things breeze through like many other things in India, where we compare ourselves to better things here than in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, etc and smile, cheer and move on! 

DIGIYATRA is now available in Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Benares, Bezwada, and New Delhi. 

Regards

Karthik.