Hyderabad airport to introduce contactless terminal entry post-lockdown

As part of its preparedness post the lockdown, the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad is all set to to Introduce a contactless terminal entry post for air travellers. The innovative digital solution for seamless passenger experience was announced on Monday, to mark ‘National Technology Day’.

The latest measure, the first-of-its-kind solution for contact-less entry into the airport terminal, will be for the safety of passengers after operations resume and will be part of the new norms of social distancing in the airport, said a press note from the GMR Hyderabad International Airport limited.

Instead of the usual process of handing over physical documents like travel itinerary and government photo ID to a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel for verification, a passenger will now be required to display the documents onto a high-definition camera installed at each gate at the domestic departures terminal of the RGIA.

The output of the camera will then be verified by the CISF Personnel from the specially designed computer monitor kept at a safe distance from passengers. Upon document check and satisfaction of the CISF personnel, the passenger will be allowed inside the terminal building for check-in and other processes, added the release.

The airport has also positioned thermal cameras at each departure gates besides the document verification cameras at the domestic terminal to measure the temperature of every passenger in a non-intrusive way. Passengers who are found to have high temperatures will be stopped from entering the terminal and airport health officers will be alerted about the same, who take care of the next steps.

Other interventions at the Hyderabad airport include all counters being fitted with acrylic shields to bar any direct contact between passengers and the check-in staff. All check-in counters will have boarding card and baggage tag dispensing machines re-oriented towards the passengers. After the check-in, the passengers will themselves collect the boarding cards and baggage tags.

On Monday, as many as 118 Indian nationals who were stranded in the US due to the ongoing coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic landed at the RGIA. This was the second arrival of evacuees who landed at the GMR-group operated RGIA, which is part of the off-shore evacuation drive of Indian Citizens from abroad under the Centre’s Vande Bharat Mission.

They came to Hyderabad via Mumbai in an Air India flight – AI 1617 - which departed from San Francisco in America. Another batch of Indian citizens from Abu Dhabi (UAE) is also expected to land in Hyderabad in another Air India flight (AI 1920), at around 9.30 p.m. on the same day.