BHUBANESWAR: With the opening of four gates of the Shree Jagannath temple leading to chaotic situations frequently, the shrine administration has decided to take the help of artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline movement of devotees.
Temple officials said the objective of using AI is to generate actionable data on crowd movement at various points like Lions Gate, Baishi Pahacha, Sata Pahacha, Chakada, Ananda Bazaar, Natya Mandap and Jagamohan.
“Through AI solutions, we can accurately and efficiently monitor and regulate the number of devotees who enter the temple for darshan at any given point of time. Currently, crowd management in the shrine is being done manually and there is only one manual footfall counting system on its premises,” said collector and deputy chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Siddharth Shankar Swain.
By using advanced sensor technologies like infrared or video-analytics, realtime data on devotees’ flow into the shrine can be generated enabling authorities to optimise crowd movement at different locations and scheduling ‘darshan’. “For example, if the capacity of Jagamohan is to hold 1,000 devotees at a given point of time and there are already 1,000 people inside it, the AI solution can give us data regarding it and accordingly, we can regulate movement of devotees during that point of time,” the collector explained.
Officials informed locations within the shrine where the hardware components of the AI solutions are supposed to be installed will be identified and a control room set up for realtime monitoring. Work will tentatively begin after two months.
The SJTA had floated an expression of interest to implement a dynamic footfall counting system in the shrine. On Wednesday, six companies made their presentations on AI-based technology that can be used for the purpose.
The need for a tech-based solution for crowd management in the 12th century shrine has risen after the government decided to reopen all its four gates, leading to overcrowding. Opening of the four gates was a long pending demand of the devotees. At present, although the devotees are stepping into the temple through the four gates, they have to wait within barricades to enter the sanctum sanctorum through only one entrance - the Sata Pahacha Dwara (seven steps in the north entrance of the main temple).