New Delhi, Feb 5 (IANS): The Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem (DYCE) is built on the fundamental tenets of privacy by design/default and there is no central storage of passenger's Personally Identifiable Information (PII) data, the Parliament was told on Monday.

"The Digi Yatra processes are subjected to audits and certification by CERT-In empanelled agencies to ensure adherence to data privacy and security standards. Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem is managed by Digi Yatra Foundation, a not-for-profit company made under the Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 and hence does not come under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act," said Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Gen V.K. Singh (retd) told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

The Digi Yatra guidelines have been issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) through the Aeronautical Information Circular on April 18, 2022 and these provide for a decentralised mobile wallet-based identity management platform, he said.

"The personal information of the passenger is stored in the mobile wallet of the traveller. The same are shared with the departure airport in the encrypted format and data is purged from the system after 24 hours of departure of flight.

"This addresses the data protection issues in implementation of Digi Yatra. Further, the Digi Yatra processes are subjected to audits and certification by CERT-In empanelled agencies to ensure adherence to data privacy and security standards," the minister added.

In a reply in to another question in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said that a total of 519 routes have been operationalised under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) - UdeDeshkaAamNagrik (UDAN) since its launch.

"At present, 76 airports including two water aerodromes and nine heliports have been operationalised under the UDAN scheme," he said.

Singh also said that four airports are ready for operation of RCS flights and development works of the nine airports/heliports have been completed and licensing is in progress.

"The development works of 17 airports/Heliports are in progress under the UDAN scheme. The development work of the remaining airports is in the planning stage," he said.

The minister also stated that presently 18 airports, including two water aerodromes, are temporarily non-operational due to various reasons such as shutdown of some airlines like Jet airways, Zoom air, TruJet, Deccan air, Air Odisha, due to higher maintenance costs, lower availability of trained pilots, lack of MRO facilities in the country, owing to completion of 3 years VGF tenure, shortage of aircraft, shortage of spare parts, engines and low PLF etc.