Railway security system has its eyes on you

National transporter ramps up project to instal AI-based cameras that can recognise faces, reports Dhruvaksh Saha

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The next time you are at a crowded railway station, look around. Cameras that recognise faces are watching, joining Indian law enforcement's increasing reliance on advanced surveillance technology for security and crime prevention as activists worry about the impact on privacy.

The Indian Railways, which carries 7 billion passengers annually, has its own police force and surveillance systems to secure and monitor stations, trains and other facilities. The national transporter has put up facial recognition system (FRS) cameras at more than 200 stations, but is using only a portion of their surveillance strength. It's running a pilot that will make seven model stations completely FRS enabled through an integrated analytics server.

Howrah, Sealdah, New Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (Mumbai), Secunderabad, Danapur, and Chennai stations will be completely equipped with real-time video surveillance in a couple of years.

The cameras identify or verify individuals by using artificial intelligence and algorithms to compare images and video frames against a database of faces. FRS was launched in 2019 at Bengaluru station and in 90 days it detected 47 people with criminal records in railway premises, according to the Railway Protection Force (RPF).

"The pilot project was sanctioned under the Nirbhaya Fund for around ₹33.6 crore. Besides crime prevention, the technology has a wider use — it will bring speed to investigations of missing persons or abducted children, efficient crowd monitoring, and women's safety," said a railway law enforcement official.