Tirumala gets India’s first AI-powered pilgrim Integrated Command & Control Centre

This is the first temple ecosystem in India to unify physical and cyber monitoring in a single AI-driven command centre.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) on September 25 launched an Integrated Command & Control Centre (ICCC), India’s first AI-integrated command hub for a pilgrimage ecosystem, for real-time crowd prediction, faster queues and enhanced safety across the sacred hill town of Tirumala.

The facility, built with NRI donor support as a public–private initiative, was inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

This is the first temple ecosystem in India to unify physical and cyber monitoring in a single AI-driven command centre, scaling techniques typically seen at major transport hubs to the devotional context of Tirumala, the state government said.

It consolidates multi-department feeds on a giant video wall and orchestrates swift, coordinated responses, ensuring transparency and accountability in real time, it said.

The ICCC at 'Vaikuntham Queue Complex–I' integrates advanced cameras, 3-D situational maps, and live dashboards monitored by a dedicated technical team.

What does ICCC do?

The AI-powered centre is useful for crowd prediction and queue analytics; safety and security; providing intelligence to counter cyber-threats etc.

The ICCC provides data for real-time crowd density, wait-time estimation from Alipiri onward, and sarva darshanam flow optimisation. It’s useful for facial recognition–assisted identification for missing persons, automated alerts for distress signals, and guided evacuation routes via 3D visuals, the government said.

Interactive 3D maps flag red-zone congestion, queue compartments and accommodation status are all available at the AI centre.

It also monitors to deter misinformation, defamatory content, and attacks on temple digital assets, to protect TTD’s reputation and operations, it said.

The ICCC is powered by AI/ML and NVIDIA-backed infrastructure.

Silicon Valley-inspired vision

The ICCC draws inspiration from IT minister Nara Lokesh’s visit to the Silicon Valley in October. He met several start-ups working on smart cities, digital twins, AI and cyber security.

"Following his guidance, conversations began with like-minded NRIs to shape an agenda to apply frontier technologies at Tirumala for scale, safety, and service excellence," the statement said.

Diaspora leaders mobilised expertise and support to translate this vision into a working command centre timed with peak festival footfalls, it said.

The ICCC leverages advanced AI, facial analytics, and 3D visualization, with high-performance compute backing to process multi-stream video and event data for real-time insights and action. The software of the centre is powered by Kloudspot, a Silicon Valley based company.

The ICC has over 6,000 AI cameras to monitor and protect Tirumala. The system processes 360,000 payloads every minute and 518 million events daily. It generates 2.5 billion inferences every day, all in real time.

Famous for the Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple, also known as the Tirupati Balaji Temple, Tirumala is in the Tirupati district of Andhra. Record 2.55 crore people visited the temple, one of the richest in the world, in 2024, TTD said. Daily visitor can range from 50,000 to more than 100,000, with significantly higher numbers over the weekends and special occasions.