India's state-run railway engineering company RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Service) limited has received an order from Bangladesh to supply 200 railway coaches worth 900 crore rupees.
With this order, RITES wants to double the share of revenue and ensure one overseas order each quarter, the Mint reported quoting chief managing director (CMD) of the company, Rahul Mithal.
"After a four-year hiatus, we now seeing high-value exports of rolling stock returning to RITES. In each of the quarters stating from last quarter of previous fiscal year, we have been bagging one export order and we intend to main this run rate bagging one exporter order in each quarter going ahead," Mithal said.
RITES had bagged Rs 900 crore order from Bangladesh for supply of 200 rail coaches of nine different designs, Rs 300 crore order for supply of 10 diesel locomotives to Mozambique and two orders of Rs 90 crore for supplying cape gauge in-service diesel locomotives, which still have 15-20 years of life left, to South Africa.
He said the company will start generating revenue from exports of rolling stock with supply of passenger coaches to Bangladesh starting from second half of next year while locos are getting delivered to Mozambique early next year.
"Subject to design approvals by railways operators in South Africa, diesel locos may also start getting delivered and generating revenue from next fiscal," the chairman and managing director said.
The South African order will test the use of these diesel locos on cape gauge networks. Accordingly RITES sees huge potential coming from it from other African countries and even Indonesia that has trains running on this gauge.
He said the company will start generating revenue from exports of rolling stock with supply of passenger coaches to Bangladesh starting from second half of next year while locos are getting delivered to Mozambique early next year.
"Subject to design approvals by railways operators in South Africa, diesel locos may also start getting delivered and generating revenue from next fiscal," the chairman and managing director said.
The South African order will test the use of these diesel locos on cape gauge networks., Accordingly RITES sees huge potential coming from it from other African countries and even Indonesia that has trains running on this gauge.
"Securing more than 110 orders of more than Rs 1,900 crore in just one quarter (Q3), which is nearly equal to the orders received in the entire FY24, underscores our strategy to aggressively march ahead, leveraging our multi-sectoral strength and maintaining our USP of being a '1 order a day' company," Mithal said.
RITES is also looking at expanding its inspection business that has now moved out from the exclusive fold of the railways. The company has already bagged one order on testing in Sri Lanka and is expecting more orders in this line of business from both domestic and overseas clients.
"Our export orders will start generating revenue from next fiscal and we hope that along with implementation of other orders, we will see at least a 20 percent growth in our tooling and double digit growth in our bottom line in FY26," Mithal said.
RITES, which is the export arm of Indian Railways, saw operating revenue (consolidated), excluding other income, stand at Rs 576 crore in Q3FY25 as against Rs 683 crore in Q3FY24, a 15.7 percent dip. Total revenue in the quarter also fell to Rs 614 crore rupees as against Rs 700 crore rupees in Q3FY24. Accordingly, RITES also saw its revenue and net profit declining in the nine-month period ending December 31.
The overseas business of RITES would also see it expanding its footprint in consultancy opportunities in Latin America, Africa, South East Asia and West Asia while moving beyond neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka for its inspection business that involves certifying product and processes of various infrastructure projects.
"We are now focusing our energy on improved execution of orders in hand. This should arrest the slide in top line and bottom line by the end if current fiscal and give us positive growth in the coming year," Mithal said.
Source: The Business Standard
Bd-pratidin English/Fariha Nowshin Chinika
