Biometrics for immigration soon: Scindia

New Delhi: Indian airports will soon start using biometric-based immigration for international passengers — hopefully making lining up at those counters while flying in and out of the country a thing of the past. Some airports like Delhi and Bengaluru could start pilot projects for the same next year, for which work is learnt to be in progress."As far as using biometrics for immigration, we have started data collection at international airports. Once the fundamental infrastructure and software are in place, we will start rolling it out. As of now, our focus is more on the domestic side for rolling out Digi Yatra at 25 more airports (which has to be done by the end of next calendar year). Once that exercise is complete, we will also look at this (biometric-based immigration) in parallel. That is work in progress," Union aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Friday.Following complaints of long waiting time at many immigration counters due to staff shortage last winter, the central government has deployed about 1,500 more personnel now.