Telangana: Secunderabad railway divisional hops on startup bandwagon

HYDERABAD: The Indian Railways has launched a ‘Startups for Railways’ programme for innovative technological solutions and the ones selected would be provided 50% financial grant up to Rs 1.5 crore. The railways have come up with 11 problem statements for the innovators to solve.
“We are hoping to shortlist start-ups within 90 days. After which they would be presenting their proposals to a committee appointed by the railway board and those selected would be given a letter of acceptance and they can begin working on their prototype,” Secunderabad divisional railway manager Abhay Kumar Gupta announced at a press meet on Tuesday.

Some of the prototypes sought by the railways include broken rail detection system, rail stress monitoring system, track cleaning machine, remote sensing, geomatics and GIS for bridge inspection, track inspection technologies, analytical tool by using digital data to improve passenger services etc.
After the proof of concept is achieved, railways would invest up to Rs 3 crore to scale it up.
“The intellectual rights of the prototype will remain with the innovator and the government will have property rights to use the technology for other applications,” Gupta added.
He said that the railway division has already approached startup incubators such as T-Hub and IIT-Hyderabad seeking their participation.
“Hyderabad is one of the biggest startup hubs in the country and we are expecting them to get involved in some of the projects,” the DRM added.
Officials said that the selection process is transparent and the innovator would be given a reason if rejected.
While the scheme is aimed at encouraging startups, officials said that established companies too can participate but they would not be eligible for the financial grant of Rs 1.5 crore.