On Monday, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister of Railways, launched the Indian Railway Innovation Policy “StartUps for Railways” in Rail Bhavan, New Delhi.
This policy will bring scale and efficiency in the fields of operation, maintenance, and infrastructure creation through the participation of a very large and untapped startup ecosystem.
Indian Railways, the national transporter, has taken an important initiative in the field of innovation through the participation of start-ups and other entities.
Speaking at the event, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the long-going discussions over the integration of technology into Indian Railways have taken firm shape in the form of this initiative launched today.
Expressing his happiness on the launch of this initiative, the Minister said that through this platform, start-ups will get a good opportunity to connect with the railways.
Out of over 100 problem statements received from different divisions, field offices, and zones of railways, 11 problem statements like rail fracture, headway reduction, etc. have been taken up for phase 1 of this program. These will be presented to the start-ups to find innovative solutions.
The Railway Minister requested the startups to use this opportunity and assured them of support from Indian Railways in the form of a 50 percent capital grant, which assures market, scale, and ecosystem.
Salient details of the Indian Railway Innovation Policy
The salient details of the Indian Railway Innovation Policy are as under:-
- Grant up to Rs. 1.5 crore to an innovator on an equal sharing basis with the provision of milestone-wise payment.
- The entire process, from floating the problem statement to the development of the prototype, is online with a defined timeline to make it transparent and objective.
- Trials of prototypes will be conducted on the railways. Enhanced funding will be provided to scale up deployment on the successful performance of prototypes.
- The selection of innovator/s will be done by a transparent and fair system, which will be dealt with through an online portal inaugurated today by the Minister of Railways.
- Developed intellectual property rights (IPR) will remain with the inventor only.
- Assured developmental order to innovator.
- Decentralization of the complete product development process at a divisional level to avoid delays.
In the month of May, field units were asked to provide problem areas. In response to it, around 160 problem statements have been received to date.
To start with, 11 problem statements have been identified to deal with via new Innovation Policy and uploaded on the portal.
- Broken Rail Detection System
- Rail Stress Monitoring System
- The Headway Improvement System for the suburban section is interoperable with the Indian Railways National ATP system.
- Automation of Track Inspection Activities
- Design of a superior elastomeric pad (EM Pad) for Heavy Haul Freight Wagons
- Development of an online condition monitoring system for traction motors of 3-phase electric locomotives
- Light-weight wagon for transporting commodities like salt
- Development of analytical tool by using digital data for improving passenger services
- Track Cleaning Machine.
- App for post-training revision & self-service refresher courses.
- Use of Remote Sensing, Geomatics, and GIS for Bridge Inspection
More Problems Statements have been collected from Railways, which are under scrutiny and shall be uploaded in a phased manner.
Indian Railway Innovation Portal has been launched which is available on the web address www.innovation.indianrailways.gov.in
