ON TRACK. RITES uses AI to fine-tune rail inspection

Every organisation is scrambling to use AI and other tech to improve productivity. At RITES — Rail India Technical and Economic Service — the attempt is to improve service quality and revenue. “We have recently launched a new centre of digital excellence and innovation hub, called Abhikalp, to speed up the use of tech and AI in our services,” says Rahul Mithal, CMD of RITES

He says the integration and adoption of AI and other tech at the PSU goes beyond mere housekeeping. “Each of our 13 verticals has been given a target to find out tech and AI enablers, quantify how it is resulting in better service, and measure the improvement in terms of the percentage of revenue.”

The infrastructure consultancy company’s 13 verticals include railways, ports, airports, metro system, highways, ropeways, and bridges; it offers three broad areas of service — techno-feasibility studies, project management consultancy and third-party audits. It is currently executing 700 orders across these verticals

On the new tech push, Mithal says, “Let’s say you are one of the 13 verticals, and your annual revenue is hypothetically ₹100 crore, then we are asking what percentage of revenues this year, in 2026-27, will be the add-on because of a tech-enabled intervention.”

Mithal says an AI-based application that has become hugely popular within the organisation is in the domain of rail inspection.

“We have been doing this historically for five decades — safety inspections of rails, which is very critical for Indian Railways. We developed a tool called VISTAR — Visual Inspection System through AI for Rails — and deployed it last year to assist inspectors,” he says. The tool leverages AI and machine learning to drive precision in the quality checks.

As Mithal explains, VISTAR collates the historical data related to vulnerable areas, and then provides the inspectors with the precise data to zoom in directly to the problem spots.

“This is exactly like the logic doctors use — they look at past clinical patient history records and then suggest interventions, trying to pre-empt ailments. We are also giving a template, so the inspectors can do a more efficient check of the rails,” says Mithal.

Not only does this cut time, but the quality of inspections has also radically improved with a focus on the prevention of adverse incidents, he says.

Published on June 15, 2026