The move to install e-clearance system comes in the wake of massive flak the government got for chaos at the immigration counters.
New Delhi: Next summer, if you fly to a foreign destination from Delhi, you may not have to stand in serpentine queues at the airport’s immigration counters.
The government will soon put in place an e-clearance system, which will cut waiting time for each passenger to just 10 seconds from the nearly 15 minutes required at present.
It will also do away with the distinction between economy and first- or business-class travellers as the latter often get quicker clearances.
The move comes in the wake of massive flak the government got recently for chaos at the immigration counters at the IGI Airport.
The issue was discussed at a high-level meeting attended by Union home secretary and senior officials from the home ministry, Bureau of Immigration (BoI), National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the developer of the IGI Airport.
According to sources, the first phase of the project will be implemented in the arrival section by April 2018 and then, it will be extended to the departure wing in the next six months.
How it will work
With the new E-clearance system in place, the passengers after collecting boarding passes will be required to get their passports scanned at the immigration checkpoint, a process expected to take 10 seconds, and directly proceed for the security check.
Right now, passengers queue up before the immigration counters and staff manually check their credentials before stamping the passport and giving them clearance.
“At present, the staff sitting at the immigration counters manually cross-checks 14 fields before giving clearance and it often takes time. The waiting time is about 12 minutes on average,” an official told ThePrint.
“The idea is to ensure that there is no chaos at the airport and no staff from immigration is required on the floor. Also, the new system will do away with the distinction between the economy and business class travellers,” he added.
A database will be built soon. “Agencies, including MEA, embassies and airlines will be required to share data of flyers that will form our database,” an officer explained.
Why automation
It is not just continuous complaints from passengers about chaos at immigration counters that prompted the change but also security lapses in the current process.
According to the sources, during a study of the immigration process, they found security lapses in the system, which were flagged to the authorities concerned and a report on the same too was submitted to MHA.
“Passengers were caught using fake immigration stamps to bypass security. These stamps are readily available in the market and once it is on the boarding pass, there is no mechanism to check if it is an original one or fake,” the officer said.
“A report on the same was prepared and sent to the ministry. It was then decided that a foolproof system needs to be in place and discussion on automating the entire system started,” he added.