In view of persisting terror threats, Integrated Security System (ISS) is being installed at several railway stations to detect suspected terrorists and identify unattended luggage at railway premises as well as the train coaches.
Arun Kumar, Director General of RPF said, “Other than the deployment of the RPF and the RPSF (Railway Protection Security Force) we have launched a commando battalion known as CORAS commando.” Arun Kumar said that the RPF is now harnessing technology in a big way as far as railway safety is concerned. “Under the ISS, we have installed a number of CCTV cameras at a number of places, in train coaches and railway stations and we are going to analyse the feed from the CCTV cameras, using this artificial intelligence. This will provide us important feedback for the safety of the railway premises,” he said. “We have used the face detection technology as a pilot project in Bengaluru and now it has also been installed at New Delhi railway station and several other stations. In the face detection system, we also have a software to collect the information from the CCTV cameras. We feed the software with sketches and photographs of the known criminals and terrorists, and when that particular person comes in the camera view, it gives an alert to the system installed in the control room,” Arun Kumar said.
The RPF Director General said that the system has been installed at over 202 stations including New Delhi railway station. The national carrier has planned to install CCTV cameras at all the major stations to keep an eagle eye on the miscreants and the terrorist’s activities on the rail network. According to the railways, the national transporter carries about 1.2 million passengers daily on its vast network of over 62,000 km. Kumar said that besides the face detection system, the RPF is trying to use many other software to get a better analysis of the entire safety system.
The DG said that the RPF has also introduced body-worn cameras for the patrolling teams so as to avoid untoward incidents on the station premises. To a question over the luggage and other objects lying unattended for several hours at the railway platforms and in the railway premises, he said, “We have a software connected via artificial intelligence to identify the luggage lying unattended for over 30 minutes on the rail premises.” “When any unattended object or luggage is detected, the artificial intelligence system alerts us, and our teams deployed at the station collect those luggage for inspection,” he said.
