Prioritize Security Across Public Transport Modes
Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao
The Hans India (Sunday, 22-06-2025)
{Leveraging AI
dovetailing human vigilance is desirable and important. AI-driven mobile
response teams must replace the outdated physical policing. Such systems save
lives, build public trust, and reduce economic losses due to panic, disruption,
and rescue operations. All it takes is the government’s will, wisdom, and a
willingness to let intelligence, whether artificial or human, work together
before it is too late} - Synoptic Note by Editor
In an era where threats
can emerge unexpectedly, a vital aspect of ‘Appropriate Preventive Safety
Measures’ for ‘Public Transport’ call for a systemic action, especially
in the light of recent Air India flight crash in Ahmedabad, killing 260 people.
Likewise, due to a bomb threat, the Hyderabad-bound Lufthansa flight made a
U-turn, back to Frankfurt airport. In both cases, passengers who are not just
travelers, were held hostage by inadequate safeguards, reactive systems, and a
lack of anticipatory intelligence. And hence, even the most ‘Regulated Modes
of Transport’ are vulnerable.
It is precisely this
loss of help, this captivity under crisis, that modern transport systems must
counter through smart design and AI-backed security infrastructure, and
protocols. In an era where security threats likely to disrupt not only peace
but lives, paradoxically, in public carriages like flights, trains, buses, in
which millions travel every day, rigorous, proactive safety screening is
conspicuously abandoned despite the compelling preventive needs.
It is time to
introspect as to why mandatory, advance-level security clearance and screening
for every public transport vehicle, which is not just a means of movement, but
is a moving microcosm of society, carrying lives, valuables, attended or
unattended luggage etc. is absent.
In fact, every public
transport vehicle when meets with tragedy, the loss, the trauma, and several
untold misereres, are either immediate or irreversible.
Multi-layered
pre-boarding checks at all concerned places, AI-powered surveillance, and
predictive threat assessments at terminals, randomized inspection protocols,
cybersecurity audits of communication and control systems etc. without waiting
for the tragedy to take place shall be made compulsory.
As a foresight, public
transport pre-screening shall be normalized and innovated, with an explicit
concept that, ‘Security Must Travel with Passenger’ before, during, and
beyond the journey.
In an atmosphere of uncertainty
and abnormality, airports are fortified like military zones, VIP convoys move
under multi-layered surveillance, even shopping malls and theatres require bags
to be scanned, identities checked, and every movement recorded through CC TVs
and Cameras. Ironically, they never sleep, never lie, but they also never jump
in to stop the crime and criminal. They just sit there like judgmental
relatives, recording everything for later drama.
Strangely, the vehicles that carry the largest
number of anonymous citizens every single day, such as public transport buses,
trains, and even certain flights, often remain dangerously vulnerable to silent
threats, both human and systemic. For instance, as a curious contradiction,
seldom a systematic and scientific check is done, to prevent a miscreant
boarding with a concealed weapon or inflammable substance in a fully occupied
state-run road transport bus plying on an interstate route at midnight, or into
a sleeper coach train. The scenario is not hypothetical.
Every tragedy in Public
Transport leads to inquiry, outrage, and compensations. For instance, in the
recent Air India flight crash, including compensation ranging from Rs 2.5 crore
to Rs 3.5 crore per victim, the total financial impact may touch or exceed Rs
1000 crore. The time has come to shift from reaction to prevention, not just in
rhetoric but in process, design, and policy. Every public and private transport
vehicle, must be subjected to an intelligent and evolving security grid
carefully without excessive militarization or harassment.
Leveraging Artificial
Intelligence dovetailing Human Vigilance is desirable and important. ‘AI
Driven Mobile Response Teams’ must replace the outdated Physical Policing. This
model preferably in PPP mode, is to be designed as ‘Security Must Travel
with Passenger’ but need not stay static at entry points. Such systems save
lives, build public trust, and reduce economic losses due to panic, disruption,
and rescue operations. All it takes to the Government is will, wisdom, and a
willingness to let intelligence, whether artificial or human, to work together
before it is too late.
A program powered by AI
installed at every bus depot, railway junction, and airport to generate daily
security risk assessments based on boarding patterns, travel routes, passenger
history, weather, social media alerts, and geopolitical developments is
essential. Establishing a National Transport Security Grid, an AI-based
centralized control system, for detection and for decision-making, and to
create an evolving algorithm and assesses threats dynamically is desirable. The
ability to prevent even 1% of potential and probable tragedy means thousands of
lives saved.
A commuter’s right to
reach home safely from public transport should be an inalienable right. This is
not a mere technological reform. It is in fact a cultural shift, from passive
trust to active safety, and from blame after death to protection before risk.
Public Transport should be made as the safest journey a citizen undertakes.
A ‘Normalized
Helplessness’ as part of public transport has been, once a passenger boards,
he or she is by and large, essentially captive to the system. There is no
functional or scientific exit strategy when it encounters a malfunction, fire
breaks out, mechanical failure occurs, some threat onboard among others.
‘Namesake Emergency Exits’
are inaccessible, non-functional, or simply ignored in design. Transport design
must be with the premise that, every passenger has the right to exit, to
survive, and to be protected at every stage of the Public Transport Journey.
Most post-incident
inquiries evade or dilute through collective accountability or unaccountability.
For every public safety system, clear prioritization of responsibility is
essential. To ‘Prevent Tragedies and not just Mourn Them’ establishing a
chain of accountability mechanisms that work both preemptively and
retrospectively is what is required. Vision, Regulation, and Resource Allocation
by Policymakers and Regulatory Authorities makes all the difference.
Law should mandate AI
screening, real-time monitoring, functional emergency exits, or passenger
drills. If AI-based protocols are not followed, Transport Operators-Public or
Private; Terminal Level Security and Operations Heads; Onboard Crew and Drivers
or Pilots; Security and Maintenance Vendors; Auditing and Safety Certification
Bodies etc. shall be held responsible. Accountability must flow from the top
down, not the bottom up. Fixing responsibility must begin before the tragedy
and not after.
However, India can
still credibly claim superiority in many aspects of public transport safety and
crisis management, particularly in how it responds to threats, handles
complexity, and manages sheer scale. Millions of passengers by Indian Railways,
by air, on state-run buses, metros, and regional services, travel frequently,
which is unmatched by any standards. Catastrophic incidents are rare, and when
they occur, rescue and mitigation mechanisms are rapidly deployed. This itself is
a testament to a deeply embedded resilience.
And yet, even as we
sharpen our tools, automate our surveillance, and refine our emergency
doctrines, there remains a realm beyond comprehension, a zone where science
stares into silence and logic yields to mystery. From unexplained tragedies
over the Bermuda Triangle, to perfectly functional machines vanishing without
trace, the human experience of transport is not just about movement, but about
vulnerability before the unknown.
It is here that Indian
civilizational wisdom gently reminds us of Karma Siddhanta, the cosmic
principle that every event, joy or sorrow, accident, or escape, is somehow
tethered to a greater arc of causality beyond immediate visibility. This does
not mean surrender to fate or withdrawal from responsibility. Quite the opposite.
It means doing our utmost in dharma, designing safety, demanding
accountability, embracing technology, and then, whatever comes, receiving it
with the steadiness of inner trust.
Notwithstanding all
this, any attempt to overhaul or fortify public systems, criticism, especially
from so-called ‘Doubting Thomases’ though inevitable and essential,
there is a fine line between useful skepticism and habitual obstruction. The
modality of such criticism must be constructive, productive, and follow certain
disciplines, in the context of public safety.
Well, when all systems
are in place, and still, something slips through, we turn not to blame, but to
balance, accepting that predetermination is not helplessness, but a form of
harmony between action and acceptance.
