Make in India: Vehant Technologies develops AI based cargo scanners
Indian player Vehant aims at doing this by expanding product portfolio, introducing innovative products using the latest ground breaking technologies. In an exclusive interview with Express Computer, Kapil Bardeja, CEO & Co-Founder, Vehant Technologies shares his product vision
With favorable market conditions for Indian players. Can you tell us what has been the momentum compared to last year?
First quarter was badly affected since whole country was shut. If airports and hotels are not operational, they will not buy a scanner. After first quarter things started picking up as places started to open up. Now, we are at pre Covid level as far as quarter 2 and 3 are concerned. We are hopeful that we will see a good business. Hotels and Airports have started business as usual which is a good sign for us.
What has been the market size of your products? What is product vision.
In security screening space, India has around 240 large prisons and each prison require full body scanner so it is a market of about 250-300 scanners for prisons alone. Then we have customs- airports, seaports & entry ports. All put together around 1000 units of full body scanners in India in next 4-5 years. Also since these are 70 lacs- 1 cr machine, it’s a fairly reasonable market size.
For Cargo screening, our estimate says it is close to 500-700 units required for India in next 3-5 years. Cargo is the segment which is growing. When personal security was lower, cargo was very high. It is essentially used in Railways and Air cargos. Cargo scanners are more expensive, typically 1 Cr plus machines.
We would also want to take our security screening business outside India extensively once we establish them here. We are the only Indian players who has these scanners as of now. Right now we are competing only with foreign players.
Any major development on the product front. How are you using emerging technologies to make the product smarter and accurate?
We operate majorly in three verticals- Security screening, smart and safe city and Enterprise analytics. In security screening we have added Cargo scanners of size 1800 mm/1500 mm and we are the first Indian company to launch it. We have successfully got the radiation safety certificate which was a big challenge. We are also bidding in some tenders and hopefully will get some orders as well. Currently we have 2 active tenders one from Indian Railways other from an airport. We think that we have a major advantage in these tenders under “Make in India”.
The KritiScan 150180D is an advanced Dual energy X-ray based pallet/cargo scanner using artificial intelligence (AI) based algorithms. It is equipped with a high load capacity conveyor system to take care of the needs for scanning cargo and pallet size boxes. The high image quality and advanced dual energy material classification technology, the X-ray based Pallet scanner meets all security inspection needs at places like Airports, sea ports, railway stations and other sensitive establishments. For high penetration, the machine has two powerful x ray generators, which generate two separate views of scanned Pallets from top and from side.
With an adaptable AI/ML based algorithm for automatic detection of dangerous, prohibited and contraband goods and substances, it provides accurate, reliable and powerful detection capability to the X-ray based Pallet/Cargo scanner helping to reduce the burden on image analysts and improve detection/screening outcomes.
Another product line is added full body scanner which will be deployed at customs and prisons to check if a person has consumed drugs, sim cards or gold. We have bided in 2 tenders which happened over the last 6-7 months.
In Traffic Enforcement and Management vertical, again we are the first Indian company to develop a Radar based speed detection and enforcement system. We have got speed testing done by Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI). It can detect speed up to 230 KM. We have also received wireless licensing. We are pitching in various Radar tenders where earlier only foreign players were bidding. It is by and large Made in India; whole product is indigenously developed barring few from Radar to ANPR system.
In Enterprise analytics, we have gone deeper into the use cases like retail and hospitality. We have close to 200 leads and picked up 2 orders.
Can you explain how you are expanding export of products?
We have good exposure in Security screening market as we are present in Africa and Europe. In traffic enforcement vertical, we don’t have much exposure. Traffic enforcement & management is a controlled market since it has numerous regulatory systems. It is 3-6 months process of validation in these markets. For Indian market we have got certifications done and started reaching out to regulators in Germany and Netherlands. We are almost 1/3rd of the price to these global players which is a major advantage for us.
