The AI-enabled system detects nine types of errors in the kitchens that are primarily responsible for unhygienic food on trains.
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In a bid to solve a legacy hygiene issue in on-board meals on trains, State-owned Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is deploying artificial intelligence-based (AI) camera surveillance in over 800 kitchens across India.
Key Points
- IRCTC is deploying AI-powered camera surveillance across more than 800 railway catering kitchens nationwide.
- The new War Room in Delhi enables round-the-clock monitoring through a centralised digital dashboard.
- AI systems detect hygiene lapses including missing protective gear, pests and sanitation-related violations.
AI Kitchen Monitoring
The AI setup is part of the newly established war room at IRCTC’s Delhi headquarters, and is aimed at fostering predictive interventions, according to Chairman and Managing Director Sanjay Kumar Jain.
Executives at the war room said that the facility, featuring multiple live feeds of all kitchens, has a 24/7 monitoring system, with teams of four or more working in shifts.
The monitoring is done through a single dashboard.
Food Hygiene Checks
The AI-enabled system detects nine types of errors in the kitchens that are primarily responsible for unhygienic food in trains.
These are hairnet compliance, transparent gloves detection, mopping, wiping, rodent, flies, cockroach, and headgear.
The system detects anomalies like the absence of mandatory chef gear/uniforms and raises automated tickets for immediate contractor correction.
Travellers say that despite the premiumisation of railway services through efforts like station modernisation and introduction of Vande Bharat trains, on-board meals often face hygiene issues.
IRCTC War Room
The war room creates a unified platform that enables faster response, greater accountability, and proactive prevention of service failures across the railway network.
It will enable 24/7 real-time monitoring of passenger complaints and incidents, establishing a single source for operational issues, ensuring clear ownership and time-bound resolution of complaints, and shifting from complaint redressal to complaint prevention through data-driven insights, a company executive said.
Real-Time Complaint Tracking
All complaint and incident signals converge into a centralised dashboard.
Key data sources include RailMadad complaints, onboard staff reports, social media platforms, CCTV-based alerts, GPS and train telemetry systems, call centre escalations, and emergency helplines.
Unified Digital Dashboard
The unified digital dashboard will display train-wise complaint heat maps, incident severity indicators, service level agreement countdown timers, repeat complaint alerts, and performance rankings of zones and divisions.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
