Indian Railways deploys 700 AI cameras and a 24x7 War Room to manage festive-season crowds

Key facts

• Indian Railways is using a centralised War Room with around 700 AI-enabled cameras, live CCTV feeds and colour-coded heat maps to monitor crowds at stations round the clock during the festive season.
• The War Room operates 24x7 with teams from the RPF, traffic operations, mechanical and electrical maintenance stationed there, and receives live feeds from platforms, areas around stations and foot-over bridges.
• The heat map is colour-coded: green means the situation is okay, yellow means the crowd is building up, and red means the crowd is very high, with officials monitoring crowd levels hourly.
• At New Delhi railway station on November 6, passenger numbers began rising around 2 pm and peaked between 4 pm and 8 pm, prompting operation of several special trains.
• Dedicated passenger holding areas have been created at around 20 railway stations; at Anand Vihar Terminal, ticket counters were moved to the holding area and multiple simultaneous security-scanning facilities were set up.
• More than 18,000 special trains are being operated during this year's festive season, compared to around 12,000 last year.
• Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw explained the system in a video shared by the Ministry of Railways on X and inspected the Rail Bhawan War Room and Anand Vihar Terminal in Delhi.