Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw launches RailTech Portal in New Delhi on Thursday. | Photo credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday (February 26, 2026) announced the Rail Tech policy aimed at engaging innovators and start-ups to drive technological innovation in the sector.
The policy proposes a dedicated innovation portal that allows open submission of detailed proposals and provides financial support of up to 50% of development costs for selected solutions.
The minister said at a press conference that the move aims to move away from the previous complex vendor selection system based strictly on rigid specifications and create a simplified, innovation-driven framework focused on testing and adopting new technologies.
Explaining the funding structure, he noted that when a start-up or innovator proposes a viable technology solution, the railways will support up to 50% of the required development funding. Once the project is proven, it would place significant long-term orders to scale the solution.
This policy is designed to also ensure that successful innovations are implemented at scale.
Areas of innovation include AI-based Elephant Intrusion Detection Systems (EIDS) to reduce wildlife collisions, AI-based bus fire detection systems, drone-based broken rail detection, rail stress monitoring systems, sensor-based load calculation devices for trucks (VPU), integration of solar panels in buses, AI-based bus cleaning monitoring systems, obstacle detection in low conditions visibility and pension systems.
In a separate move, the Minister also announced the complete digitization and transformation of the Railway Claims Tribunal (RCT) with the support of artificial intelligence, which will enable electronic filing of claims and their processing and adjudication, making the entire process more transparent and accessible from anywhere in the country.
Published – 27 Feb 2026 01:40 IST
