In a major step to improve food safety and hygiene for passengers, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has started using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor meals being prepared for railway passengers across India. The aim is to make sure the food served on trains is clean and of better quality.
IRCTC Chairman and Managing Director S.K. Jain, while speaking to the media earlier this week, said that around 2,400 AI-enabled CCTV cameras have been installed in more than 800 base kitchens across the country. He said these kitchens prepare food for passengers travelling on Indian trains, including long-distance and premium trains like the Rajdhani Express.
He further said that all the cameras are connected to a central control room at IRCTC headquarters in Delhi, where kitchen work is watched all the time to make sure hygiene and food quality are maintained.
How AI Cameras watches over your train meals?
S.K. Jain said the AI system keeps a close watch on kitchen activities in real time. It helps make sure that food is prepared and packed cleanly and safely.
The system can spot hygiene problems during cooking and packing, detect unsafe handling of food, identify issues like contamination risks or foreign objects, and send quick alerts so action can be taken fast. Officials said the system can even catch very small issues, like a strand of hair in food preparation areas.
Making Ticket Booking Fairer for Passengers
Along with improving food services, IRCTC is also working to make ticket booking safer and fairer for passengers. Special focus is on the Tatkal system, where tickets sell out very quickly due to high demand.
S.K. Jain said that in 2025, around 3.5 crore fake accounts were removed, and many automated bots were also blocked. These bots were often used to book tickets unfairly and create problems for regular passengers.
These steps are being taken so that genuine passengers have a better and fairer chance of getting tickets without facing system misuse or fast-selling bots.
