The Gujarat Police have announced what they describe as the country’s largest hackathon focused on CCTV integration and AI-based video analytics, aimed at developing technology for policing and public safety.
The government intends to integrate these cameras into a unified video management and analytics ecosystem. A prize pool of ₹ 37 lakh has been announced, while the hackathon is scheduled for September 10-11 at iHub Gujarat in Ahmedabad.
The Gujarat Police invited students, researchers, freelancers, startups and companies to participate and develop innovative solutions for a robust CCTV surveillance mechanism in the state, according to hackathon website under the state home department . Here are the four main objectives of the hackathon, as outlined by the Gujarat government: The Gujarat government has said different departments currently operate independent CCTV systems, with some using cloud-based storage and others relying on local storage infrastructure.
How to register and what happens next?
Those willing to participate can register on the Sentinel Gujarat portal. Participants are then required to submit their prototype, documentation and architecture details. The system will also be expected to generate movement history and searchable events. “All eligible submissions will first be assessed against the common evaluation areas.
After completing registration, participants will be able to access the details, resources and live camera feeds from about 50 geographically distributed cameras through the Resources page for technical evaluation, according to the website. The submission requirements include: The technical evaluation will require participants to integrate approximately 50 heterogeneous cameras, track a designated vehicle and provide real-time alerts and GIS visualisation.
Bonus consideration may then be awarded for meaningful capabilities demonstrated beyond the mandatory requirements,” the site says.
What is the schedule?
The system is expected to support capabilities such as real-time suspicious-activity detection, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), vehicle tracking, watchlist matching and cross-camera search. The challenge will test these capabilities using live CCTV feeds and real-world policing scenarios. The process covers choosing an integration model, building and testing the solution, submitting the prototype and planning its scale-up. Solutions will be assessed on the test case, architecture, analytics, scalability and proof-of-concept readiness, with bonus consideration and special recognition for innovative capabilities.
The main challenge is to develop a system that can scale to more than 80,000 CCTV cameras across Gujarat and enable AI-powered analysis of live feeds. Participants will test their systems on about 50 CCTV feeds, tracking a designated vehicle and generating real-time alerts, GIS visualisation and searchable movement data. They must also submit a plan to scale the system to about 80,000 cameras across Gujarat. Registration opened on August 4 and the last date to apply is September 7. Shortlisting is also scheduled for September 7. The hackathon is scheduled to take place over two days, September 10-11, with the results to be announced on the second day.
