The Indian Railways received 297 proposals from startups under the ‘StartUps for Railways’ initiative, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday.

Vaishnaw also added that the ministry received proposals to solve 11 problems. 

As per the tweet by the minister, the maximum proposal was received for the broken rail detection system. Total received proposals for this issue was 43, followed by development of an on-line condition monitoring system for traction motors of 3-phase electric locomotives (42) and automation of track inspection activities (40). 

On the other hand, problems related to the Headway Improvement System for suburban sections interoperable with the Indian Railways National ATP system received the lowest number of proposals (4).

Earlier in June, Vaishnaw launched the Railways Innovation Policy to increase the involvement of startups in the sector. The ministry said it would choose startups that would be able to create low-cost products and solutions for the Indian Railways.

At the time of the launch, Vaishnaw said that through this platform, startups would get a good opportunity to connect with Railways. 

For phase one of the programme, 11 problem statements including rail fracture, headway reduction etc. were taken up, while the ministry received over 100 problem statements from different divisions, field offices/zones of Railways. 

Under the policy, a grant up to INR 1.5 Cr was announced. To make the entire policy transparent and objective, the complete process from floating of problem statements to development of prototype was made online with a defined timeline, the ministry said.

While the ministry said that trials of prototypes would be done in Railways, it also added that enhanced funding would be provided to scale up deployment on successful performance of prototypes.

Among other salient features of the policy, the ministry announced that the developed Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) would remain with innovators only.