Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday (February 26, 2026) announced a Rail Tech policy aimed at engaging innovators and start-ups to drive technological innovation in the sector.

The policy proposes a dedicated innovation portal to enable open submissions of detailed proposals, and provides financial support of up to 50% of the development cost for selected solutions.

Addressing a press conference, the Minister said the objective of the move is to shift away from the earlier complex system of vendor selection based strictly on rigid specifications and to create a simplified, innovation-driven framework focused on trial and adoption of new technologies.

Explaining the funding structure, he noted that when a start-up or innovator proposes a viable technological solution, the Railways would support up to 50% of the required development funding. Once the project proves successful, it would place substantial long-term orders to enable scaling of the solution.

The policy is designed to also ensure that successful innovations are implemented at scale.

Innovation areas include AI-powered elephant intrusion detection systems (EIDS) to reduce wildlife collision, AI-based fire detection systems in coaches, drone-based broken rail detection, rail stress monitoring systems, sensor-based load calculation devices for parcel vans (VPUs), solar panel integration on coaches, AI-enabled coach cleaning monitoring systems, obstruction detection in low-visibility and foggy conditions, AI-driven pension management and dispute resolution systems.

In a separate move, the Minister also announced the complete digitisation and AI-enabled transformation of the Railway Claims Tribunal (RCT), which will enable computerisation of filing of claims and their processing and adjudication making the entire process more transparent and accessible from anywhere in the country.