The Ministry of Railways has launched a new technology portal called Rail Tech to encourage startups to bring solutions for legacy railway issues regarding safety, maintenance, equipment monitoring and defect identification, among others, railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
The ministry is especially looking to harness artificial intelligence (AI) for these solutions, and will fund up to 50 per cent of the technology’s development cost after a feasibility identification process.
Some of the areas it is looking at include an AI-based elephant intrusion detection system and fire detection system in coaches, a drone-based broken rail detection system, a rail stress monitoring system, a sensor-based load calculation device on parcel vans, solar panels on coaches, an AI-based coach cleaning monitoring system, obstruction detection in foggy environments, and AI-based pension and dispute resolution systems.
According to the railways, innovation challenges can be initiated by any innovator or departmental user, with a single-stage detailed submission of proposals. For context, there already exists a startup innovation policy, but it has limitations, Vaishnaw said. The revamped policy and the portal were launched after extensive consultations with startups, he added.
“There is no time limit in applying on the portal. We are removing the barriers of tenders and other hurdles. There were constraints earlier. The challenges and proposed solutions were limited to the scope of problem statements given by the railways,” he said.
Among some areas, Vaishnaw referred to drone-based systems for detecting rail fractures, broken grills and monitoring overhead equipment, including identifying overheating insulators through AI-based analytics. He added that technology solutions could also address administrative challenges such as faster processing of pension documents for retired railway employees, ensuring timely commencement of pension payments.
No separate pool has been created for this policy and feasible solutions will be funded directly from railway coffers under specific budget heads for which solutions have been proposed.
The railways will also look to remove red tape and decentralise the process of validating and testing claims by handling it at the divisional level, where specific problems can be focused on and pilot projects can be led by specific divisions before being rolled out at a larger level.
According to the minister, the policy was designed after studying successful models such as the iDEX initiative in defence, the startup frameworks in the Ministry of Electronics and IT, and telecom sector innovation policies. The national transporter is also looking to reform how claims are processed under the Railway Claims Tribunals (RCTs).
Under the new system, aggrieved passengers will be able to file claims electronically, irrespective of their location, even while travelling or upon reaching their destination. The entire process, from e-filing to case information systems, will be digitised and AI-enabled.
Vaishnaw stated that within the next 12 months, all benches of the Railway Claims Tribunal will be fully digitised under this initiative.
 "Railways to fund 50% of tech development as new Rail Tech portal launches")
