AI-based surveillance system for Railways

An AI-based surveillance system to prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks will be installed on 700 km of route passing through forest areas, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. ?We have identified forest areas in Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Kerala, Jharkhand and some parts of Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu which are home to elephants. This AI-based surveillance system will be implemented in these areas which can alert loco pilots well in time about the presence of elephants on tracks, the minister said. According to him, the technology, developed by the railways in collaboration with some start-ups, was introduced on a 150-km stretch in Assam last year and has turned out to be quite useful. We made some improvements in the system based on our field experience and now it detects the presence of elephants on tracks with 99.5 per cent accuracy, Vaishnaw said, adding that many elephants have been saved with the help of this technology till now. The total cost of the project implementation on the 700-km tracks will be Rs 181 crore. Vaishnaw also stated that his officials are in touch with the forest departments to identify more such areas to expand the scope of the project.