Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) has recommended a few improvements in the data analytics platform that was readied with the help of Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology (RSET) in order to analyse travelling pattern in the Kochi metro.
The metro agency had inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with RSET in 2016 to collate and analyse commuter data based on ticket/travel card-related feeds collected from automatic fare collection (AFC) gates and CCTVs at metro stations. “This considerably helped arrive at commuting patterns in each direction to assess the number of passengers per hour per direction of traffic [PPHPDT] and the proceeds from ticketing. Face recognition helped ready an estimate as to how many men, women and children/students commuted in the metro,” said Father Jaison Paul Mulerikkal, vice principal and professor at RSET.
The emphasis on Artificial Intelligence (AI) helped predict commuting trends in the system of mass rapid transport theoretically by up to 93% accuracy. Efforts are on to further improve the accuracy rate of predictive data. Apart from metro officials, Metroman E. Sreedharan was among those who were keen to know the projections on commuter traffic, he added.
The tie-up between KMRL and RSET got a boost with the Department of Science and Technology approving ₹25 lakh for the initiative. Efforts are under way to take the project ahead by processing commuter data in the respective stations. Efforts will also be made to install AI cameras embedded with chips to aid the entire process. Furthermore, IOT-based sensors could be deployed to assess the structural safety of metro pillars, it is learnt. It will even help forewarn problems like the foundation of a pillar at Pathadipalam sinking, which caused misalignment of the metro track in the area.
Metro sources said a revamp of data collection and analysis process was on, and brainstorming is on about the possibility of extending it to the Water Metro project which will be commissioned later this year.
