AI-Powered Face Recognition: Transforming Rail Ticketing for a National Transport Corporation

The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) is at the forefront of India's transit revolution, developing a high-speed, efficient, and sustainable regional rail network. Tasked with implementing the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS), NCRTC aims to enhance connectivity across the National Capital Region (NCR), reducing travel time and boosting economic activity. With increasing passenger volumes and the need for a seamless, technology-driven commuting experience, NCRTC sought to modernize its fare collection and passenger management systems, ensuring a faster, more convenient, and future-ready transit network.

The Challenge: Addressing Ticketing & Security Risks

A national transport corporation aimed to eliminate ticketing inefficiencies that led to long queues, high operational costs, and environmental waste. However, deploying an AI-driven ticketless travel system posed multiple challenges.

The solution had to function without internet or cloud dependency to ensure privacy and security. Additionally, railway stations had inconsistent lighting conditions, making it difficult for traditional systems to recognize faces accurately.

Fraud prevention was another major concern, as the system needed to detect impersonation attempts, such as passengers using mobile images instead of being physically present. Finally, to handle peak-hour foot traffic efficiently, the system had to process passenger verification within seconds, preventing delays and congestion.

The Solution: AI Face Recognition for Travel

To eliminate ticketing inefficiencies and enhance commuter convenience, Datamatics implemented KaiVision - A cutting-edge video and image analytics accelerator powered by Agentic AI, seamlessly integrating Vision AI with Gen AI for deriving actionable insights from images and video streams. Developed ground-up using public open-source architectures trained on heterogeneous facial datasets, providing high accuracy across varied conditions.

Gone were the days of long queues and paper tickets. The AI-driven system instantly recognized passengers, granting them entry in less than 0.5 seconds with 99.5% accuracy. A liveness detection model further ensured security, eliminating 98% of fraudulent attempts such as photo-based impersonation.

By deploying the solution on-premises at the edge, Datamatics removed dependency on the internet, allowing real-time processing even during peak hours. The system seamlessly scaled to accommodate over 1 million passengers daily, all while reducing operational costs by 80%—ushering in a smarter, more sustainable era of ticketless travel.