Indian Railways Rail Network Modernizes Its Safety Systems with IDIS

The India Railways Protection Force is able to take a proactive and preventive approach to safety thanks to the monitoring it provides IDIS Solution Suite VMS combined with Deep Learning Analytics and Herta Security's facial recognition software.

Asia's largest rail network and the world's second-largest transportation entity, Indian Railways, you are using a IDIS video with facial recognition as part of an ambitious technological upgrade that spans several phases.

With around 14.000 trains running in 65.000 miles of tracks, Indian Railways transports near 9,5 million passengers daily and is modernizing its systems with the aim of managing up to the 40% of global rail traffic for 2050.

Upgrade plans include full electrification, new lines and a cross-border high-speed rail network connecting major cities and neighbouring countries. Amenities and security measures at stations in the eastern region are also being transformed through significant investments in video surveillance.

The first phase of the safety infrastructure upgrade aims to reduce congestion and facilitate the safe management of large volumes of passengers. Indian Railways destined 230 stations in the eastern region with a large daily influx to be the first to benefit from a solution of end-to-end AI video surveillance.

The Video System, which included 4K cameras, Video analytics powered by artificial intelligence and facial recognition, had to be installed on hundreds of platforms, and the Railroad Protection Force needed a Monitoring Station at each fifth station for simultaneous live viewing of each location.

These monitoring centers were to be managed and controlled using a federated architecture with a central command system that also serves as a data center and disaster recovery facility.

After a tender, IDIS video solution has been implemented by India's system integrator M2M Cybernetics, in partnership with IDIS Securitatem Solutiones Pvt. The project of the first stage, in the eastern region, Covers 230 Stations with the highest daily influx.

The moitorization staff is supported by IDIS Deep Learning Analytics (IDLA), with functions including movement, loitering and abandoned object detection and line crossing, continuously updated to ensure the best performance, that make it easy to set up and automate alerts for a variety of potential risk events.

Facial recognition is also a key feature of the update, and the IDIS solution was integrated with IDIS facial recognition technology. Herta Security, that uses advanced algorithms to provide real-time identification and alerts to persons of interest.

To support these advanced features, the cameras that best suited each location were selected from the wide range of IDIS, with main models including Full-HD IR Dome, vandal-resistant, Robust, bullet cameras and Lightmaster PTZ.

The IDIS smart codec combined with the Motion Adaptive Technology (MAT) provided a reduction in bandwidth, without compromising on capturing sharp images.

This technology, that adjusts the recording when there is no movement in the scene, Provided more storage savings. Cybersecurity was also paramount for Indian Railways, and all IDIS devices passed the OWASP Level certification standard 2 – Appendix C, Going beyond standard penetration testing.

The solution operates on the platform VMS IDIS Solution Suite (ISS), Handling multiple high-performance IDIS servers in a federated architecture. ISS incorporates features including critical failover redundancy, storing video data on a storage area network (SAINT) using RAID 5 to protect against recording breaches during network outages.

With the app IDIS Mobile Plus, Railway Protection Force personnel can also take advantage of VMS tools via their smartphones or tablets. The ISS also allows the capture of images and videos from mobile phones to be fed into the surveillance system, increasing the potential scope of surveillance. For example, allowing local staff to submit on-site reports on damage or incidents, channeling them directly to command centers.

“Indian Railways wanted the most flexible video surveillance solution, robust and future-proof to provide a secure foundation for growth and development plans”, says Rahat Jain, Managing Director of IDIS Securitatem Solutionses. “With the IDIS video, the Railroad Protection Force we now have full confidence that they are operating 230 of the safest stations, resulting in the identification of two more regions for updating".

Despite the ambitious scale of the project, IDIS solution was efficiently delivered by M2M system integrator Cybernetics. Today, The India Railways Railway Protection Force can take a proactive and preventive approach to security thanks to efficient monitoring using IDIS Solution Suite VMS combined with Deep Learning Analytics and Herta Security's facial recognition software.

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