Gujarat Police to Link 80,000 CCTVs in AI Smart Policing Push

GANDHINAGAR : Gujarat Police is organising the country’s largest CCTV integration and AI-based hackathon under the ‘Gujarat Police Innovation Challenge 2026’ to make the state’s security system smarter, faster and more effective. The initiative will bring together innovators, startups, technology companies, developers and researchers from across the country to find solutions to real-world policing challenges. Under the guidance of State Director General of Police,  Shri G. S. Malik, the hackathon will focus on developing AI-based solutions for real-world security needs.

The key objective of this hackathon is to create a robust, fast and capable public safety ecosystem through scalable solutions that can integrate with over 80,000 cameras across the state. The hackathon aims to integrate CCTV cameras operating across various government departments on different vendors, technologies, VMS platforms and network architectures, enabling seamless and effective surveillance across the state.

This is India’s largest hackathon in the field of CCTV integration and AI-based video analytics. The winning teams will receive total cash prizes worth Rs. 37 lakh. The most important aspect of the hackathon competition is that, for the first time in the country, participants will work on live CCTV camera feeds based on real-world situations. In addition, real-time identification of suspicious persons, vehicles and unusual activities, along with an immediate alert system, will be tested. Capabilities such as automatic number plate recognition, vehicle tracking, watchlist matching and cross-camera search will also undergo real-world testing.

The competition will be organised in two stages. Under Stage 1, the Open Innovation Challenge, participants will be selected in two categories. Category 1 will include students and small and medium-sized startups, while Category 2 will include large startups and established technology companies. Under Stage 2, the Finale, will feature the top six teams with the best performance in Stage 1. These teams will demonstrate solutions in a live production environment using real-world policing scenarios.

More information on participation in the competition, rules, eligibility and guidelines is available on the official portal https://sentinel.gujarat.gov.in. The hackathon is likely to commence in September.

The initiative is being organised with technology partnership support from i-Hub (Gujarat) and knowledge partnership support from reputed institutions DA-IICT and the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU).