RTIH Godavari Pushkaralu Challenge

An innovation challenge seeking technology-enabled solutions for urban management and pilgrim services for Godavari Pushkaralu 2027 in Rajamahendravaram.

The "Innovation-Led Solutions for Godavari Pushkaralu 2027" challenge, a collaboration between the Rajamahendravaram Municipal Corporation (RMC) and Ratan Tata Innovation Hub (RTIH), aims to identify, support, and deploy emerging technologies, startup-led innovations, and digital solutions. These innovations are crucial for strengthening event preparedness and operational capabilities for the Godavari Pushkaralu 2027, a significant religious and cultural event expected to attract millions of pilgrims and visitors.

The challenge seeks practical, technology-enabled solutions from innovators and eligible technology providers to address priority urban management and pilgrim-service requirements. Selected solutions will be validated through pilots and measurable performance indicators, with potential for continued municipal use beyond the Pushkaralu event, creating a durable foundation for smart city governance and future large-scale gatherings.

The initiative focuses on practical innovations that enhance public safety, enable coordinated operations, and improve the pilgrim experience at scale. Key innovation areas include real-time monitoring and early warning systems, solutions demonstrating measurable value for public safety and municipal services, readiness for field and pilot deployment through prototypes or MVPs, and reliability under local crowded, varying connectivity, and weather conditions.

The challenge features 12 priority innovation tracks covering critical areas like real-time crowd monitoring, emergency detection, lost-person reunification, multilingual pilgrim information, intelligent traffic and parking management, smart sanitation, waste collection, water quality monitoring, GIS-based facility mapping, integrated command-and-control dashboards, and digital project/vendor/asset monitoring. These solutions are expected to bring transformative value by improving crowd density and incident prevention, enabling rapid lost-person reunification, providing verified multilingual guidance, coordinating intelligent traffic and shuttles, enhancing smart sanitation, and creating an integrated command-and-control system for seamless coordination across various departments.