A Bhubaneswar-based startup formed by a group of eight engineering graduates has bagged a contract from the Indian Railways for installation and operation of 10 human interactive interface system kiosks on the platforms of city railway station.
Two of the 10 proposed kiosks were inaugurated recently by RINL CMD P.K. Rath. They were installed at platform no. 1 and 8 in the first phase. Plans are afoot to make all kiosks operational in a year. Six of them will be installed by June. The Railways has awarded the contract to the young team under ‘Make in India’ initiative to encourage startups.
How it works
After capturing the face images for security, the tabs available at the kiosk can be used for making calls, find out PNR status and use Google Maps. The kiosks will be customised to take care of the security concerns. Each kiosk will have facility for 3.0 ampere charging of three smart phones and a laptop. It will also have IP cameras on three sides.
Co-founders of startup Nexyite Infotech Services Pvt. Ltd Chiranjeevi Nayak and Chittaranjan Behera said they had hit upon the idea to become entrepreneurs and solve the unemployment problem by providing jobs to some people. “By pooling up a few lakh rupees as working capital, we had installed a kiosk at a private firm at Patia in Bhubaneswar and bagged the contract from the Railways to pay revenue of ₹33 lakh in three years,” they said.
In turn, for the digital display board which will telecast socially relevant messages such as on family planning, clean and green campaign and blood donation will generate revenues for the startup, aaprt from commercial ads. The young entrepreneurs have projected to earn ₹1 crore from advertisements. The co-founders of the startup said the response to their project at city railway station would be a ‘game-changer’ for them, adding that they were already getting encouraging response from their prospective clients.
