To maintain hygiene and quality of food supplied in trains, the IRCTC has expanded its AI-based monitoring system to more than 800 kitchens that prepare food for Indian Railways, using 2,394 cameras to bring down related complaints from passengers.

The AI-enabled system detects nine types of factors that are primarily responsible for unhygienic food in trains — hairnet compliance, transparent gloves detection, mopping, wiping, and presence of rodents, flies and cockroaches. IRCTC served about 60 crore meals in 2025-26 to train passengers.

“This system started around two-and-half years back and we are consistently expanding… bringing more kitchens and types of errors under this initiative. The cameras installed in the kitchens are supported by AI tools that quickly identify unhygienic practices and send alerts. The system can detect even an insect as small as 7-8 mm. As soon as it detects a problem, a message is sent to the kitchen manager concerned. If the issue is not resolved, it is escalated. Overall, action is taken against the person responsible within two hours,” said a senior IRCTC official involved in monitoring operations from the war room at the corporation’s headquarters in Delhi.

The official further said that not wearing hairnet is the most common hygiene-related violation detected in kitchens. On an average, the system generates around 350 alerts or error tickets every day. For instance, in the last one month, it generated 13,550 tickets, with the North Zone accounting for the highest number of tickets at 4,123, followed by East Zone (3,205), West Zone (2,687), South Central Zone (2,226), and South Zone (1,309).

“The most difficult period for kitchens is during seasonal weather changes. During this time, the quality of food can get affected, and we receive the maximum number of complaints. The system generates around 350 tickets a day and its effective error rate is about 10%. At times the system flags violations that are actually not there. For example, a cook may be wearing a hairnet, but if it is pushed slightly upwards, the AI system classifies it as a violation because it is programmed in that way,” the official said.

In a rare move, the Railway Ministry had fined the IRCTC Rs 10 lakh for serving poor-quality curd in Patna-Tatanagar Vande Bharat train. It also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on the company supplying food in the train. According to the data submitted in Rajya Sabha by the ministry in July 2025, it received over 19,000 food-related complaints from passengers in the last five years. The fines were imposed in 3,137 cases. The data shows that while the number of cases has marginally reduced from 7,026 in 2023-24 to 6,645 in 2024-25, it is significantly higher than 253 complaints recorded in FY21.