KEC International wins Rs130 crore railway orders

Mumbai: KEC International has won fresh orders of about Rs1.3 billion from Indian Railways, and will rebid for a tender that was recently scrapped by a state-run telecom firm, a top official said on Thursday.

The firm has received small sized orders for constructing tunnels, platforms, bridges, earthwork and signalling from the railways, managing director and CEO Ramesh Chandak said over the telephone from Nagpur.

The RPG group firm will also rebid for a tender that was recently scrapped by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) involving an order of Rs25 billion.

“It (tender) will come in a couple of months time, then we will again put a bid,” Chandak said.

Contracts from railways and telecom sector make up around 2% of the firm’s order book, which now stands close to Rs60 billion, he added.

Tower testing facility

The power transmission contractor has set up a tower testing facility that can test transmission towers up to 100 m in height and up to 1,200 kV of voltage, near Nagpur at a cost of Rs400 million, the firm said in a statement on Thursday.

“You can not have a large revenue out of that (test facility),” but will gain further business in power transmission projects as a result of this captive high-end facility, Chandak said.

The facility can take up testing jobs for clients apart from fulfilling in-house needs and has already lined up several testing jobs, Chandak added.

“We are testing a 1,200 kV tower for Power Grid. There are towers from Abu Dhabi, there are towers from other customers lined up. We are full for next six months.”

Shares in the firm closed 1.3% down at Rs576.35, in a Mumbai market that was up 0.94%.