IRCTC's AI War Room Targets Train Food Hygiene with 800-Kitchen Camera Net

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is rolling out an AI-based camera surveillance system across more than 800 kitchens, aiming to fix a long-standing hygiene problem in on-board train meals. The setup, run out of a new war room at IRCTC's Delhi headquarters, uses computer vision to spot nine categories of kitchen errors in real time.

Chairman and Managing Director Sanjay Kumar Jain said the system is designed to enable predictive interventions rather than just reactive fixes. The war room operates 24/7 with teams of four or more working in shifts, watching live feeds from all kitchens on a single dashboard. The AI detects missing hairnets, transparent gloves, and headgear, as well as conditions like mopping, wiping, rodents, flies, cockroaches, and other hygiene failures. When the system flags an anomaly – like a chef without the mandatory uniform – it automatically raises a ticket for immediate correction by the contractor.

The move comes as travellers continue to complain that on-board meals lag behind the broader premiumisation of Indian railways, including station upgrades and the rollout of Vande Bharat trains. IRCTC executives said the war room also consolidates complaint and incident data from RailMadad, onboard staff reports, social media, CCTV alerts, GPS and train telemetry, call centre escalations, and emergency helplines. The unified dashboard displays train-wise complaint heat maps, severity indicators, SLA countdown timers, repeat complaint alerts, and performance rankings by zone and division.