The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has unveiled an artificial intelligence powered robotic surveillance platform that will be deployed at Puri railway station ahead of Lord Jagannath's Bahuda Yatra on 24 July to enhance passenger safety and security. The platform, named DSC ARJUN, was revealed in the presence of ECoR General Manager Parmeshwar Funkwal and senior railway and Railway Protection Force (RPF) officers. ECoR officials said the system has been introduced as a temporary deployment for the festival and may later be shifted to Bhubaneswar railway station.

Developed to support Railway Protection Force personnel through artificial intelligence, computer vision, machine learning and Internet of Things technologies, DSC ARJUN is described as a force multiplier capable of round the clock surveillance and intelligent monitoring. The railways trace robotic policing in Indian Railways to 2020 when Captain ARJUN was developed by Central Railway during the COVID-19 pandemic to assist frontline staff. Earlier this year a humanoid platform, ASC ARJUN, was introduced at Visakhapatnam railway station as the next phase of that initiative.

DSC ARJUN integrates AI enabled surveillance and analytics to provide features such as facial recognition, real time crowd analytics, passenger headcount, unattended baggage detection and suspicious activity detection. The platform also supports public address announcements, live video streaming and instant alert generation while being suitable for deployment at platforms, station concourses, booking offices, waiting halls, circulating areas, parking zones and parcel offices. Officials say continuous monitoring and intelligent analytics will assist RPF personnel in crime prevention, crowd management and protection of railway assets.

ECoR stated that the system can enhance emergency response and provide more proactive and efficient security services without replacing human oversight. The technology is intended to assist, not substitute, frontline personnel by improving situational awareness and reducing response times to incidents. Deployment at Puri will be trial focused during the festival period with operational data to inform future station level decisions.