Ahmedabad: Whenever identical twins — city-based businessmen Sanjeev and Rajeev Chhajer– fly for business or pleasure, they first hit a roadblock at Digi Yatra. The app, which promises quicker airport entry and security clearance through facial authentication, struggles to distinguish between them forcing one of them out of the fast-track process and into manual verification queues.Such is their ordeal that the brothers have written to the ministry of civil aviation, seeking a solution after hitting the hurdle repeatedly. In the latest instance on July 10, Sanjeev said he was travelling from Ahmedabad to Delhi on IndiGo flight 6E 2179 when the Digi Yatra gate displayed the message “Too Many Access”. Rajeev encountered the same error. The pair said they again faced the issue at the security checkpoint, delaying their journey.Instead of using the dedicated Digi Yatra lane, they said airport staff asked one of them to complete identity checks manually. The process had to be repeated despite both brothers having completed registration on the Digi Yatra app.“The entire point of enrolling on the platform is to avoid queues and save time. If one of us has to leave the queue every time we travel together, the benefit is lost,” Sanjeev said. “This of course indicates that the system is secure but that doesn’t mean genuine people face troubles,” he added.In his letter to the ministry, Sanjeev said the system may be treating the brothers’ highly similar facial features as duplicate or repeated access attempts. He requested the authorities to examine whether the facial recognition algorithm requires additional safeguards for identical twins and suggest a permanent solution or an alternative verification process.When checked, an airport source said, “We’re sure twins may have travelled through our airport by far. However, no such issue has been flagged to the airport operator by far. This cannot be resolved at airport level and instead, requires ministerial intervention.”The problem is not limited to one family. Keya Patel and Hiya Patel, 24-year-old identical twins from Ahmedabad, said they face similar difficulties whenever they travel together, particularly during holidays.“My twin daughters usually avoid Digi Yatra because one of them almost always gets flagged. They end up standing in the manual queue anyway,” mother Trupti Patel said.The sisters said the error does not occur when they travel separately. They believe the problem surfaces only when both twins attempt to pass through the facial recognition gates around the same time. The families now hope the authorities will investigate whether the issue affects other identical twins and refine the system so they can use Digi Yatra without repeated verification failures.
