Railways | Business Upturn

Godrej Enterprises builds ₹2,600 crore pipeline in energy solutions, eyes 15% growth by FY27

Riddhima Jain — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 05:34:51 +0000

Godrej Enterprises Group has built a project pipeline of ₹2,600 crore in its Energy Solutions business at the close of FY26, driven by demand across transmission infrastructure, railway electrification and renewable energy projects.

The company expects the business to grow by around 15% by FY27, supported by rising investments in power infrastructure and clean energy. The growth is aligned with increasing demand for grid modernisation and electrification projects.

“India’s focus on strengthening its power infrastructure and accelerating the transition to cleaner energy sources is creating significant opportunities across the energy ecosystem. Our strong order bank reflects the growing demand for reliable transmission infrastructure, railway electrification and renewable energy solutions,” said Raghavendra Mirji, Business Head – Energy Solutions business, Godrej Enterprises Group.

During the year, the company commissioned 25 units of 765kV AIS and GIS bays in Gujarat, 54 units of 400kV and below AIS/GIS bays across regions, and a 220/132kV AIS substation in Sikkim. It also delivered three railway traction substations and executed a 6.5 MWp rooftop solar project in Jaipur.

Foundation stone to redevelop 508 railway stations across India to be laid tomorrow: PM

Dixita Hazarika — Sat, 05 Aug 2023 16:47:08 +0000

Tomorrow, the foundation stone to redevelop 508 railway stations across India will be laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi via video-conferencing.

The 508 stations are spread across 27 states and Union territories including 55 each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, 44 in Maharashtra, 25 in Odisha, 49 in Bihar, 37 in West Bengal, 34 in Madhya Pradesh, 32 in Assam, 22 in Punjab, 21 each in Gujarat and Telangana, 20 in Jharkhand, 18 each in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, 15 in Haryana and 13 in Karnataka.

Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted a post stating, “Tomorrow, 6th August, is a landmark day for the railways sector. At 11 AM, the foundation stone to redevelop 508 railway stations across India will be laid under the historic Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. At a cost of almost Rs. 25,000 crore, the redevelopment will revolutionize how rail infrastructure is imagined in our nation. It will boost ‘Ease of Living’ and enhance comfort as well as convenience. Special care has also been taken to ensure the stations are in line with local culture, heritage, and architecture.”

Indian railways is in the midst of a massive infrastructure revamp across the country in one go.

Railways’ passenger sector revenue increased by 92%

Aryan Jakhar — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 14:15:05 +0000

According to a statement from the Ministry of Railways, the Indian Railways registered a revenue gain of 92% in the passenger segment on Tuesday, with travel beginning from 1 April to 8 October.

According to a statement made public by the Ministry, Indian Railways’ approximate total revenues on an originating basis from 1 April to 8 October was Rs 33,476 crore, an increase of 92% from the same period of the previous fiscal’s period of Rs 17,394 crore.

According to Indian Railways, the number of passengers booked during the time experienced a significant increase in the unreserved passenger segment of 197%, while growth in the reserved passenger segment was 24% year over year.

The approximate total number of passengers booked in the reserved passenger sector from 1 April to 8 October 2022 is 42.89 crore, up from 34.56 crore over the same time last year, a 24% increase.

According to data from the Railways Ministry, the revenue from the restricted passenger segment was Rs 26961 crores from 1 April to 8 October, up from Rs 16307 crores during the same period last year, a 65% rise.

According to the ministry, the approximate total number of passengers booked in the unreserved passenger category from 1 April to 8 October 2022 is 268.56 crore, up 197% from 90.57 crore during the same period last year.

When compared to the same period previous year, the revenue from the unreserved passenger category increased by 500%, from Rs. 1086 crores to Rs. 6515 crores, from 1 April to 8 October.

PM Modi pushes mega employment of 10 lakh in 18 months

Dipankar Ray — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 12:46:23 +0000

PM Modi on Tuesday had reviewed the status of human resources across all government departments and ministries, thereby instructing the recruitment of 10 lakh people over the course of 18 months on “Mission Mode”.

It is worthy to note that the announcement comes at a time. When the opposition parties have been questioning the government on the employment issue in the country. For the last few days. “PM reviewed the status of human resources in all departments and ministries and instructed that recruitment of 10 lakh people be done by the government in a mission mode in next 1.5 years,” the PMO tweeted on Monday.

PM Modi pushes mega recruitment

The government had earlier clarified to the Parliament that. Moreover, there is an enormous amount of vacant posts available in the government. Which was as of March 1, 2020. The total number of sanctioned government employees was to be approximately 40 lakh. But at the moment less than 32 lakh people are in place. The Prime Minister had previously conducted a meeting with all the secretaries of various departments on April 2 where he had asked every department to focus on improving the employment issue in individual departments.

Reports suggest that most vacancies can be seen in the posts of major ministries such as Revenue, Defense, Railways, etc. According to News 18 report on the matter. Thus, there are almost 15 lakh sanctioned posts in Railways and around 2.3 lakh posts are still vacant.

Cabinet approves high-tech project worth Rs 25,000 crore for Indian Railways

Aryan Jakhar — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 11:57:21 +0000

The Union Cabinet today approved 5 MHz in 700 MHz frequency band to Indian Railways for public safety and security services at stations, trains, public safety and security services at stations and in trains.

“The purpose of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) for Indian Railways is to provide secure and reliable voice, video and data communication services for operational, safety and security applications,” according to a statement by the Ministry of Railways. It will be used for modern signalling and train protection systems and ensure seamless communication between loco pilots and guards.

Let’s have a look at How the government is planning to make the journey in Indian Railways more safe and secure:

Indian Railways has envisaged providing LTE based Mobile Train Radio Communication on its route with this spectrum. The estimated investment in the project is more than Rs. 25,000 Crore. The project will be completed in the next 5 years.

Indian Railways has approved TCAS (Train Collision Avoidance System), an indigenously developed ATP (Automatic Train Protection) System, which will help in avoiding train collisions thereby reducing accidents and ensuring passenger safety.

It brings a strategic shift in Railways’ operations and maintenance regime. It will help in improving the safety and increasing the line capacity to accommodate more trains using the existing infrastructure. The modern rail network will result in reduced transportation cost and higher efficiency. Also, it will attract multinational industries to set up manufacturing units to fulfil the ‘Make in India’ mission and generate employment.

It will also enable the Internet of Things (IoT) based remote asset monitoring especially of coaches, wagons & locos, and live video feed of CCTV cameras in the train coaches to ensure efficient, safer and faster train operations.

The Spectrum charges may be levied based on a formula basis as prescribed by the Department of Telecommunications for Royalty Charges and License Fee for Captive use as recommended by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

RailTel Corporation IPO subscribed 6.55 times as the grey market dives

Sanah Shah — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 05:43:53 +0000

RailTel Corporation of India’s IPO of Rs 820 crore has observed robust retail participation at bids summing up to 11 times the issue size until now. The subscription will close on Thursday, 18th February.

The premium that the unlisted shares of the company were profiting from in the grey market has slipped in the past few days. Analysts have largely been positive on the issue, as the Mini Ratna firm is debt-free and has been a consistent dividend payer. The IPO is seeking a just valuation of 21.4 times PE on an FY20 trailing basis at the upper limit of Rs 93-94 price band, they said.

Abhay Doshi, a Gujarat-based dealer of unlisted shares who also follows the grey market, said the stock was dominating a premium of Rs 12-14 on Thursday 18th February, which was way lesser than the Rs 47 premium it was benefitting a few days ago.

“The prospects of the company are very good, but it looks like sentiment has changed due to dull participation of QIB and HNI categories till now,” the founder at UnlistedArena.com said.

Till the end of 2nd Day of the IPO, the issue was subscribed 6.55 times with the retail quota getting bids going up to 10.55 times the limit. The qualified institutional buyers’ quota was subscribed 2.97 times and the non-institutional investor category 2.63 times the limit. The portion reserved for employees was subscribed 1.85 times.

The grey market premium still suggests 13-15% rise over the upper limit of the IPO price band.

Fundamental analysts are positive about the company’s growth prospects, though reported sales and profit growth over the recent years have been in single digits. Geojit has a ‘subscribe’ rating on the issue and cites increasing data usage, the government’s digital India initiatives and further diversification plans.

RailTel is one of the mega neutral telecom infrastructure providers in India. Last reported on 31st January, the company had the exclusive right of way along 67,415 route km connecting 7,321 railway stations for laying optical fibre cable. RailTel offers leased line and VPN facilities and also provides IP-1 services.

The state-run company ensures strategic and important network infrastructure is given to the government and some states. The company is also an applying partner for the Bharat Net project to produce an optical fibre cable-based broadband infrastructure.

During FY18-20, RailTel’s revenues grew at a compounded annual growth rate of 7.5% at Rs 1,128 crore in FY20. Over the same period, EBIDTA grew at a CAGR of 12.4% to Rs 334 crore in FY20. Net profit increased by 2.6% CAGR during the period to Rs 141 crore in FY20. Operating margin was more than 28% while the dividend payout ratio was 46-49% for the same period.

One of the main negatives includes the company’s heavy reliance on government entities and, thus, a concentration risk provided that 23.8% of its revenues come from only three high profile customers. It is present in a highly regulated industry, which is a cause of worry.

Choice Broking said, “Considering the futuristic service & growth plans of the Indian Railways and RailTel’s ability to monetise its existing assets through subscription plans and co-sharing with private operators, we feel that fundamentals are positive for the company. Thus, we assign a ‘subscribe’ rating for the issue,.”

Niral Shah of Samco Securities stated that the issue is fairly priced. “It has been commanding a good grey market premium indicating the offer will sail through but keeping the risks in mind, we recommend investors to subscribe for listing gains only,” he said.

Indus Towers (formerly Bharti Infratel), a listed company in the mobile communications infrastructure sector, has a P/E multiple of around 15 and an EV/EBITDA of 3. Other railway infrastructure stocks such as Ircon International, RITES and RVNL are trading at an average P/E of 9.5 times and the fresh The railway IPO, IRFC, had a poor market launch.

Astha Jain of Hem Securities termed the demanding valuations as ‘fully priced,’ but said that the industry dynamics of telecom and telecom data services — where the broadband market is advancing pace with enterprise data services presents huge potential.

“The edge which company holds over its peers in terms of financial performance makes this issue attractive to deploy funds in. Hence we recommend investors to subscribe to the issue for the short & long term,” she said.

Prospective Investors can subscribe to the IPO by purchasing a minimum of one batch of 155 shares or in multiples. Retail investors can bid for a maximum of 13 lots at the lower band limit.RailTel had on Monday 15th February raised funds worth Rs 243.99 crore from 14 secured investors. Foreign portfolio investors who participated were UK based Aurigin Capital through its Aurigin Master Fund and Utilico Emerging Markets Trust, Reliance Capital managed Cohesion MK Best Ideas Sub-Trust, Singapore based, Integrated Core Strategies Asia and Goldman Sachs India.

L&T shares hit a 52-week high as it secures new orders

Sanah Shah — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 06:52:53 +0000

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) shares have hit a 52-week high of Rs 1,390, up by 3% on the BSE on 14th January, 2021. The market is otherwise quite downcast, riding on the steady line of order inflows in the constructions and engineering major.

L&T announced on 14th January that its construction division has secured important and large orders from prestigious clients for several businesses. The commercial and residential spaces arm of the buildings business has received an order from a noteworthy developer to construct an office space in Mumbai.

On 13th January, the construction division secured orders from important clients for Metallurgical & Material Handing Business and Power Transmission & Distribution Business.

On the other hand, the railways strategic business unit has won an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) order from the Central Organization for Railway Electrification (CORE), package EPC-06 to electrify 918.40 RKM/1171.31 Track KM of railway lines in the North Western Railway.

The size of the orders was not revealed by L&T, instead they stated that the significant orders range from Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 2,500 crore. Considering these new orders, L&T has announced EPC order wins valued at more than Rs 70,000 crore as on date since October. The lowest bidder in orders is worth approximately around Rs 8,800 crore.

ICICI Securities, said in a note, “During October-December quarter (Q3FY21), L&T announced EPC orders are estimated to be more than Rs 59,000 crore, across high speed rail, construction, water effluent, hydrocarbon, transportation, mining equipment, power T&D, heavy civil infrastructure and defense segment indicating robust order inflows for the quarter. Also, the order pipeline remains robust across T&D, green energy corridor, railways, transportation, water & infrastructure, etc. Key risks remain project delays/deferrals and less-than-expected conversion of the tendering pipeline.

At the same time, brokerage predicts that Q3FY21 will be a reasonable quarter for the capital goods domain in reference to ordering inflows while execution may improve as a result. Execution picks up with laborers almost returning to sites, touching 95% of pre-COVID-19 levels during the quarter as economic activities normalize.

It said, “In our view L&T’s working capital and cash flow situation will be key monitorable. Consequently, we expect adjusted standalone revenue to grow marginally by 0.5% to Rs 19,985 crore. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) is expected to grow by 9.9% to Rs 1608.8 crore with margins expected to improve 30 basis points (bps) to 0.8% for the quarter.”

PM Modi inaugurates India’s first-ever driverless train operations in Delhi

Devanshu Singla — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 07:34:02 +0000

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first-ever driverless train operations on Delhi Metro’s Magenta line via video conferencing. He also launched the National Common Mobility Card, an inter-operable transport facility that allows users to pay for travel, toll duties, retail shopping, and withdraw money using one card.

“The inauguration of the first driverless metro train shows how fast India is moving towards smart systems,” said PM Modi speaking at the event. “The first metro in the country was started with the efforts of Atal Ji. When our government was formed in 2014, only 5 cities had metro services and today 18 cities have metro rail service. By 2025, we will take this service to more than 25 cities.”

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also attended the virtual inauguration programme.

Here’s all you need to know about the new technology:

1) The driver-less trains will be fully automated, eliminating the possibility of human error, as per the statement by PMO.

2) The service will be available on Delhi Metro’s Magenta Line which connects Janakpuri West in West Delhi to Botanical Garden in Noida. Delhi Metro’s Pink Line (Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar) is expected to have driverless trains by 2022.

3)The extension of this technology to the Pink Line will increase the driverless network on the Delhi Metro to around 94 km, which is nearly 9% of Delhi Metro’s total network.

4) Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will now enter the elite league of 7% of the world’s Metro networks, which can operate without drivers.

5) Driverless train technology has set standards for automation called grades of automation (GoA). In GoA 1, trains are run by one driver and, in GoA 2 and GoA 3, the role of the driver is reduced to operating doors and for taking over in case of emergencies—the starting and halting of trains are automated. Finally, in the GoA 4, trains are on completely unattended operations mode.

6) DMRC has had driverless technology since 2017, but the agency has been conducting rigorous trials before launch. The initial launch was set for May 2020, but this had to be postponed because of the COVID-19 lockdown.

7) The National Common Mobility Card will be fully operationalised on the Airport Express Line and anyone carrying a RuPay-Debit card issued by 23 banks in the last 18 months can make payments.

Hindustan Construction, Vensar JV secure Rs 236 crore railway order from Northeast Frontier Railway

Shalmali Bhagwat — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 08:10:31 +0000

Hindustan Construction and Vensar JV have bagged the Rs 236 crore railway order. Hindustan Construction share in order is placed at Rs 130 crore. The railway order includes two separate contracts from the Northeast Frontier Railway for the construction of Single Line BG Tunnels Lot 14A and Lot 15A on a 51.38 km long Bairabi Sairang New BG Rail line in Manipur.

Indian Railways is actively carrying out various projects to strengthen its network and connectivity across North-East India. One of the major railway projects, 51.38 Km long Bairabi-Sairang New BG Rail line, is all set to give a massive boost to the rail connectivity in the region, as it will connect Mizoram to the Indian Railways network up to Bairabi railway station, which is the gateway to the state. The new rail line project includes 32 underground tunnels, 55 major bridges, 87 minor bridges, 16 cut and cover tunnels, 5 Road Under Bridges (RUB), and 5 Road Over Bridges (ROB). The line will be laid across four railway stations, namely Hortoki, Kawnpui, Mualkhang, and Sairang stations.

Vensar Constructions Company is a construction company based in Hyderabad and specializes in all aspects of infrastructure mainly into buildings, tunnelling, roads and electrical lines.

Hindustan Construction is a pioneer in India’s infrastructure industry, having executed landmark projects that have marked the country’s progress since 1926. They have supported construction of 27 per cent of India’s hydropower generation and 60 per cent of nuclear power generation capacities, over 3,960 lane km of expressways and highways, more than 360 km of complex tunnelling and 383 bridges. The Hindustan Construction Group reporting a turnover of Rs 9,437 crore includes the combined base of Hindustan Construction Ltd, Hindustan Construction Infrastructure and Steiner AG in Switzerland.

Hindustan Construction last made headlines in August when it announced a joint venture with Dilip Buildcon Ltd (DBL) to have secured a deal of Rs 1,335 crore by Rail Vikas Nigam for construction of tunnels, bridges and formation works in a new broad-gauge rail line between Rishikesh and Karanprayag in Uttarakhand. Shares of Hindustan Construction was last trading in BSE at Rs.5.78 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 5.85.

Railway freight earnings witness an 11% jump in October, as compared to 2019

Anu Jain — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 06:55:20 +0000

The demand and an uptick in economic activity are gradually recovering as earnings from goods transportation via Indian railways are continuously rising.

As of October 13, The freight loading grew 18% at 43.46 mt (metric tonnes) and the earnings have jumped 11% i.e. ₹4,124 crores. As per official data, the figures include an increase in the loading of coal, fertilizers, steel, cement and food grains, among others.

According to the railway ministry, the average loading of 53,774 wagons per day was up 16.5% on the year, as of October.

The recovery of loading commodities accelerated from August, post the sharp decline during the first quarter of the current fiscal due to the disruption caused by the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier in October, the government said, “unlocking of the economy and the implementation of Aatmanirbhar Bharat package has ensured that recovery in India has gained momentum even as the sustained spread of the virus poses a downside risk to the short- and medium-term growth rates.”

Coal and cement segment register for more than 50% of freight movement for Indian railways.

The national transporter carried 19.13 mt coal in 2020 ( as of October), compared to 17.20 mt in 2019. As much as 4.36 mt of cement was transported till October 2020, compared to 3.28 mt in 2019.

Government to give Private Railways freedom to set fares

Apurva Khairnar — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 08:25:35 +0000

The government will allow private companies to set their own passenger fares when the train services start in the country. This move is mainly made to lure investors.

VK Yadav, Chairman of Railway Board said that “Private players have been given the freedom to fix shares in their own way. But air conditioned buses and planes also operate on those routes, so they have to keep that in mind before setting their fares.”

Alstom SA, Adani Enterprises, GMR Infrastructure Ltd and Bombardier Inc have expressed interest in these projects. According to an estimate from the Ministry of Railways, the projects are capable of bringing more than $ 7.5 billion in the next five years.

The government had asked companies to send their interest to run passenger trains over 109 origin-destination routes via 151 trains in July.

Modernizing the railways has now become very important as the current railway network is congested and old.

48,000 slum clusters to be removed from railway tracks in Delhi within three months, orders Supreme Court

Nivedya P T — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 07:14:25 +0000

The Supreme Court has ordered the eviction of over 48,000 slum clusters from safety zone along railway tracks in Delhi.

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation the Railways, and the Delhi government have been asked to prepare a comprehensive action plan within 3 months to remove encroachments next to 140 km of railway tracks out of which about 70 km of track is affected by large jhuggie jhopri clusters and execute the plan in a phased manner, according to the court order.

“No interference, political or otherwise, should be there and no court shall grant any stay with respect to the removal of the encroachments,” the Supreme Court said in its order as a similar order by Delhi High Court in 2018, as well as a Task Force set up by the Railways, could not be implemented due to political opposition.

The Supreme Court has also directed the Railways and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCDs) to remove the garbage piled upon and near the railway track and ordered for a meeting next week among Railways, Delhi government, municipal corporations and the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Trust to discuss the starting of garbage removal works immediately

“70 per cent of the requisite amount shall be borne by the Railways and 30 per cent by the state government. The manpower is to be provided by the SDMC, Railways and agencies available with the government, free of cost, and they will not charge it from each other. The SDMC, Railways and other agencies to ensure that their contractors do not put the waste/garbage on the sides of the railway tracks,” the order read.

The decision has come after the hearing of a report filed the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA).