The South Central Railway (SCR)-Secunderabad division will be holding the first workshop for potential startups to collaborate with the Indian Railways to come up with innovative solutions to about 11 problem areas identified in running of trains across the country, said Divisional Railway Manager A.K. Gupta on Tuesday.
Close to 40 potential startups have been identified for the workshop to be held on Friday at the DRM office to brief about the scheme introduced by Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnav earlier this month.
“We have contacted T-Hub, IIT-Hyderabad and engineering colleges. Small, medium scale and micro enterprises, individuals and even final year engineering students can come up with fresh, smart ideas towards improving the functioning of Railways, which is a large organisation with complex working modes,” he said.
Addressing a press conference along with Additional DRM P.B.S. Rathore at his office in ‘Sanchalan Bhavan’, Mr. Gupta informed that there is no restriction on big firms to participate in the workshop, but they will not be eligible for the funding of up to ₹1.5 crore being offered by the Railways.
“If the proposal is approved by a high powered committee of the Railway Board, the funding for scaling up the model could go upto ₹3 crore,” he said.
If the technology is accepted and implemented, the Railways will support the startup for about three years and pay 10 times the cost of making it and keep the government usage rights while the intellectual property rights will remain with the startup concerned.
“Successful startups can share the solution in the market after taking necessary approvals from the Railways,” he said.
The Railway Board had received about 150 problems from across the country of which about 11 were chosen, although none of the 10 suggestions sent by the SCR has found initial approval.
“Once the first lot of startups’ smart solutions are taken up successively, the Railways may think of taking up the pending set of other problem areas identified,” observed the DRM.
Interested startups or individual innovators can log onto the railways ministry portal, check the problem statements and submit proposals (https://indianrailways.gov.in).
Once the technology solution is accepted, a presentation has to be made to the Railway Board panel following which the proof of concept, extended trials and regular adoption will be taken up, said Mr. Gupta. The entire process will take about 75 days as fixed timelines have been set for each stage like 30 days for applying and 15 days for technology evaluation before going to the second stage of approvals, trials and adoption within 24 months.
Senior divisional commercial manager M. Basavaraj was also present.
