Rail startups given 23 projects valued at approx. Rs.43.87 crore
New reforms have been incorporated including EPC contracts, bridge construction, execution of signaling, electrical and non-interlocking works among others in an updated manual.
The construction processes have been standardized through ‘The Indian Railways Construction Manual 2023’, launched by Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw on 9 Jan 2024 in New Delhi.
Vaishnaw elaborated, “The construction manual will help in many activities including Land acquisition, forest clearance, bridge design, contract management, tunnel construction, road flyover and under bridges. This manual would help us to achieve to become the world’s fastest growing rail net work.”
“This manual is an important milestone in the efforts of Indian Railways to equip the construction officials with the required knowledge for execution of fast-paced construction of projects.”
The previous manual was old, compiled around 1960.
The Minister also appreciated the work done by Roop Narayan Sunkar, former Member (Infrastructure), Railway Board and the entire team in preparing this manual. Indian Railway Institute of Civil Engineering and the team of construction officers of different zonal railways have prepared this manual.
As per the National Rail Plan, Indian Railways has to develop capacity by year 2030 that will cater to the growing demand up to year 2050. To achieve this, Indian Railways has to increase its pace of building its infrastructure i.e. commissioning of super critical and critical projects, construction of new lines; completion of gauge conversion, multi tracking, automatic signaling and traffic facility works etc.
Meanwhile, 23 projects valued at approx. Rs.43.87 crore has been awarded to railway startups, said the Railway Ministry.
The Railways has taken an important initiative in the field of innovation through participation of start-ups and other entities.
“Startups for Railways” initiative was launched on 13 June 2022. As part of this initiative, Indian Railways Innovation Portal is available at https://innovation.indianrailways.gov.in/.
The Objective is to leverage innovative technologies developed by Indian Startups, MSMEs, Innovators and Entrepreneurs to improve operational efficiency and safety on Indian Railways.
The Ministry aims to address quality, reliability and maintainability-related issues of the Indian Railways.
Under the policy, the Startup, MSME, Innovator and Entrepreneur will have exclusive ownership of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) created in the project, it said in a release on 9 Jan 2024. Fiinews.com
