Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister for Railways and for Electronics and Information Technology, announced a RailTech policy and the complete digitisation of the Railway Claims Tribunal as part of the 52 Reforms in 52 Weeks initiative. The policy will engage innovators, startups, industry and academic institutions through a dedicated RailTech portal and simplify proposal submission and selection. It is intended to create a transparent, innovation driven framework focused on trial and adoption of new technologies.

The portal will allow innovators and departmental users to initiate challenges with a single stage submission and will increase the scale up grant more than three times while doubling the maximum prototype grant. The Railways will support up to 50 per cent of development costs for viable proposals and place long term orders for successful solutions. The policy adapts features from defence and electronics models to remove procedural bottlenecks.

Priority areas include AI based elephant intrusion detection, fire detection in coaches, drone based broken rail detection and rail stress monitoring, as well as sensor based load calculation for parcel vans. The policy also covers solar panels on coaches, AI based coach cleaning monitoring and AI enabled pension and dispute resolution systems. The aim is to move successful innovations into regular operational and administrative use.

The e RCT system will enable end to end computerisation of the Railway Claims Tribunal (RCT) to permit e filing, online hearings and real time case tracking remotely. With 23 benches nationwide the reform seeks to remove jurisdictional barriers so claimants can file electronically while travelling or after reaching their destination. The minister indicated that within 12 months all benches will be fully digitised and AI enabled case management will accelerate disposal.

The integrated platform will support 24x7 e filing, a centralised case information system and a document management system with digitally signed records. Hybrid hearings and digital notifications are expected to reduce adjournments, lower costs and improve access to orders and judgements. If successful, the model could be extended to other tribunals to enhance transparency and citizen centric justice delivery.