Flights to Kargil limited to 19-seaters; service expansion in progress: Govt

New Delhi: The government is making all efforts to start civilian flight services to Kargil and only 19-seater aircraft can be operated to the airport there, Civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Thursday.

The minister told the Lok Sabha that considering the runway at the existing Kargil airport, terrain difficulties as well as landing and take off protocols, only 19-seater aircraft can be operated. In this regard, efforts are going on with airlines to look at starting civilian flights to Kargil under the UDAN scheme, he added. UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) is the civil aviation ministry’s regional air connectivity scheme. An amount of Rs 9.2 crore has been sanctioned for the airport and some electrical works have also been done.

“We are making all efforts to start civilian flights to Kargil... if some airlines say they are ready to provide connectivity from Kargil to Srinagar or Jammu, then we are ready to do the remaining work and provide for the civilian services,” the minister said during the question hour. He also said that efforts will be made to start services at the earliest.

Twelve more airports are ready to implement DigiYatra facility that will provide passengers seamless and contactless movement at various checkpoints through facial recognition system, the civil aviation minister said on Thursday.

Currently, the DigiYatra facility is available at 15 airports of the country. While the DigiYatra app is slowly gaining traction, there have been concerns expressed in various quarters about privacy of passenger data. “The app facilitates the passengers to enroll their verifiable credentials using Aadhaar card number and to keep their personal information on their smartphones to ensure data privacy,” the minister said.

Based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT), DigiYatra provides for contactless, seamless movement of passengers at various checkpoints at airports in India. DigiYatra app has been downloaded by more than 43 lakh users, Naidu said, adding the scaling up of the facility will be done in a

phased manner.