Indian Railways (IR) has announced Rail Tech Policy reform as the third reform under “52 reforms in 52 weeks” initiative for massive and systematic induction of technology in the railways sector. The policy aims to involve innovators, startups, industry and institutions to promote innovation with simplified selection through a dedicated rail tech portal, enabling completely digital, end-to-end process.
Moreover, the innovators or departmental users can now submit simplified-single stage proposal of innovation challenges. It also facilitates user-friendly interface, increases the scale-up grant more than three times and doubles the maximum grant for prototype development and trials. In the funding structure, when a startup or innovator proposes a viable technological solution, the railways will support up to 50 per cent of the development funding required and once the project proves successful, substantial long-term orders would be placed to enable scaling of the solution.
Besides, key innovation areas in the policy includes AI-based elephant intrusion detection system (EIDS), AI-based fire detection system in coaches, drone-based broken rail detection system, rail stress monitoring system, sensor-based load calculation device on parcel vans (VPUs), solar panels on coaches, AI-based coach cleaning monitoring system, obstruction detection in foggy environments, and AI-based pension and dispute resolution systems.