Vehant Technologies, an IIT-Delhi incubated firm, has bagged a contract from RailTel to install 100 cameras at railway stations across the country. These cameras can recognise faces behind masks and thus help in identifying people not maintaining Covid-appropriate behaviour like social distancing.

Cameras will be installed at New Delhi Railway station, Nizammuddin (also in Delhi), Prayagraj and Lucknow. Cameras installed at Raipur, Hyderabad, Thiruvanathapuram, Mallapuram, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Thrissur and Kannur, will also be used for another application – to identify stolen vehicles by shortlisting vehicles based on colour and logo.

The cameras can be installed within two to three weeks if the locations are identified (and the local clearances are in place). Clearances are required as the cameras have to be installed atop poles.

Though the cameras can also be used to fine those not maintaining Covid-19 appropriate behaviour, that is not part of the contract, the company said. Recently, Indian Railways asked all its zones to impose a fine of up to Rs 500 on passengers caught spitting or not wearing masks.

In the last one year, such solutions -- use of AI-based cameras to detect Covid-19 inappropriate behaviour -- have been deployed in hotels and malls. They have also been installed at traffic lights to nab unmasked people on the roads.

The contract secured by the company is a rate contract, with the rate finalised for one year, or till 100 such AI-inbuilt cameras are used. Effectively, there will be no price escalation during the first year.

Vehant Technologies, which bagged the contract on January 1, has installed two such cameras at RailTel’s office for contactless attendance, which ensures that these cameras will remain useful even after the pandemic is eradicated.

 

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