Barcodes,photos on tickets to boost Games security

All tickets will carry a barcode,which will have information including stand and seat and the Delhi Police will have the photograph of each person watching the game and his exact seat in the stadium.

When the spectator enters the stadium,security cameras will record his photograph. The photo will be stored along with the information in the barcode.

“It is a foolproof system,by which we will know exactly where a person is sitting in the stadium and what time he left the venue,” said Sujit Panigrahi,Additional Director General,Technology,of the Organising Committee.

This information — both photograph and seat number — will be sent to the police database.

“The idea is that the Delhi Police could run an automatic search in their criminal database to ensure that no one with a criminal background manages to slip in,” added the official.

The ticketing system has been tried in Beijing during the Olympic Games,but the system had many glitches. For one,due to simultaneous analysis of photographs and data,it took people a longer time to enter the stadium,leading to serpentine queues.

To ensure that a similar goof-up does not happen in Delhi,the Organising Committee is planning more gates. The committee is also not using other biometric registration measures due to the fear of slowing down the queue.

The Electronics Corporation of India Limited is working on the barcode,while the hardware will be provided by another firm. The tender was floated last week and the last date for submission for it is November 7. “We should be able to finalise the contract at the end of November,” said Chief Operating Officer V K Gautam.

There will be other security features in the ticket to ensure that it is not replicable — including a watermark and holograms. Another is that one person cannot buy more than one ticket at a time.

For accredited personnel — sportsmen,support staff,coaches,members of the media and others — the ticket will have photograph and barcode. For them,there will also be special access gates equipped with a monitor. The screen will automatically show the face of the person when the accreditation card is read by the barcode reader. The photo on monitor and accreditation card must match before one is allowed entry.

Anybody will be able to book tickets online,but to get entry,one has to get the e-ticket replaced with the barcoded ticket.

The committee is still chalking out a plan on how exactly the barcoded ticket will reach the spectators. “There are two options,one is to have counters where e-tickets can be exchanged with barcoded tickets,” said a senior OC official. “The other is to courier it to the spectator. We have still not decided on which one to put in place.”

The cost of the ticket is yet to be finalised,as the Organising Committee and Delhi government are still involved in a tug-of-war over the cost of transport,which has been clubbed with the entry fee.