Rahee has been serving the Railway sector for over 50 years now, where it has grown from a Railway component manufacturer to a complete turnkey railway infrastructureprovider, says RAHUL KHAITAN, Vice President, Rahee Infratech
Your take on Interim Budget 2024–25 and how it is going to favourably impact your company
With a thrust on investment in infrastructure, the Union Ministry of Railways has been allocated Rs. 2.55 lakh crores for the financial year 2024-25, up by nearly 6% from last year’s allocation of Rs. 2.41 lakh crores. Railway has proposed development of three new corridors under PM Gati Shakti to increase multi modal connectivity by developing, Energy, Mineral, Cement corridor, Port Connectivity corridor and High Traffic Density corridors. Rahee being a key player in the core Railway Infrastructure segment and Rail Track Products, is well positioned to be able to contribute significantly to these government infrastructure initiatives. One of the modernisation initiatives from the Indian Railways, includes construction of Ballastless Tracks for the specialised corridors and stations being planned, where Rahee is already the leading player. Introduction of these corridors would further propel the infrastructure needs for construction of Bridges to be built across the corridors. Moreover, we are expecting significant increase in demand for the engineering track products that are currently being manufactured by Rahee across its eight manufacturing units. So, over all the impact of the interim budget should be extremely favourable for Rahee in the coming financial year.
India has taken a rapid stride in railway infrastructure in the last decade. How has been the growth of your company in the last three years?
Rahee has always believed in specialisation and has grown as a core railway sector company. Rahee has been serving the Railway sector for over 50 years now, where it has grown from a Railway component manufacturer to a complete turnkey railway infrastructure provider. Today the company is well positioned in the sector with credentials to be able to participate in large size Railway infrastructure projects. The company has experienced exponential growth of over 25% Year on Year in the last three years.
How is Rahee Infratech contributing to the growth of Indian Railways?
In the current financial year Railways has added 5000+ Km of Tracks to its network and it has a vision to go on adding 5000+ KM on yearly basis for the next 8 years. This is like adding the size of a Switzerland Rail network to India on a yearly basis. Rahee is heavily contributing to the track infrastructure development for the Railways by Constructing Tracks, Building Bridges, Welding Rails, Manufacturing Rail Fastening and Turnout Systems. Over the last many years Rahee has constructed over 250+ KM of Ballastless Tracks and over 75 Major Bridges for the Railways. Rahee is continually expanding its capacities and looking forward to executing a minimum of 10% of the Railway Infrastructure needs on a year-on-year basis.
How are your offerings assisting in enhancing safe rail journeys?
Safety is of paramount important for Railways and Rahee is playing a crucial role to ensure safety. Rahee operates in a product segment that is critical to Railway safety requirements. The Rail track products being manufactured and supplied by the organisation meet various track requirements and are safety critical products. Rolling Stock is plying on the Fastening Systems and Turnouts designed, manufactured, and supplied by the group. To ensure the safety, very high levels of manufacturing and quality control are being adapted at Rahee manufacturing units across India. Our construction practices in the field are aligned with the highest international standards to be able to deliver the highest precision and comfort to the client to enhance a safe rail journey.
What are your views on the various government initiatives for the development of Indian Railways? What further regulatory adjustments are needed to propel the sector?
Unlike in the past, today the government has realised that to present India as a developed economy at the world stage, Railway is going to play one of the most crucial roles. With this realisation has come the various government initiatives and focus on the development of the Indian Railway network. Railway has launched initiatives to increase its share both in the Freight and Passenger segment. With primary focus on Safety, enhancement of capacity and induction of new modern technology. The initiatives undertaken since the last 10 years are yielding results, where Railway is now successfully adding 5000 KM to its freight and passenger network on a yearly basis. The initiatives have given confidence to the Railway that it would be able to successfully double its freight share from 1500 to 3000 million Tons per annum in the coming years.
We believe that an independent statutory regulator overseeing operation of Railways, through market research (for costing and demand management) and periodic impact-evaluation of its regulatory actions, can bring further efficiency in the system. Particularly, an independent regulator for freight tariff determination is a sine qua non. Towards this, short-term step can be establishing a tariff regulator working as an attached office to Ministry of Railways, and in long-run a gradual shift towards a statutory independent authority.
Please take us through your collaborations, tie-ups and acquisition to further leverage emerging opportunities in Indian Railways?
Rahee is in exclusive collaboration with Pandrol of UK for design manufacturing and supply of Resilient Rail Fastening Systems and Noise Vibration Solutions to the Railways. Pandrol is the world leader in Rail Fastening Solutions with products installed in over 100 countries. Pandrol Rahee is well positioned in India to offer the world leading solutions to the country to support their Rail Infrastructure needs. Today Pandrol Rahee has over 50% market share in the specialised fastening segment in India.
Further Rahee has a technical collaboration with Tracktec GmbH of Germany for Turnout Systems and Track devices. The collaboration focuses on offering the solution for High-Speed, Ballastless, Semi-High- Speed and Heavy Haul Railways. Tracktec has over 100 years of experience in the Turnouts industry and with this collaboration Rahee is offering tried and tested solutions to the Indian Market to support the renewed speed requirement and freight carrying requirement of Indian Railways.
Please take us through your manufacturing plants?
The Group has eight manufacturing facilities spread across West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana. All the facilities are dedicated for manufacturing and supply of various Railway components. In Rahee we believe in precision manufacturing and to support our vision we implement the latest manufacturing technology available, including CNC machines and other precision manufacturing equipment. Rahee has two Turnout & Track Devices manufacturing facilities, one located at West Bengal and other at Telangana each. Two Railway Steel Girder Fabrication facilities located at West Bengal and Odisha each. Two Rail Fastenings and Steel Sleeper facilities located within West Bengal. And Pandrol Fastening System facilities located one at Telangana and one at West Bengal.
To stay competitive, a company must consistently innovate and enhance its products. What research and development initiatives are you undertaking in this regard?
We believe that change is the new constant, hence, to progress the company must continually innovate and enhance its process efficiency to be able to stay ahead of the competition. In the field of manufacturing, the company has successfully been working on innovative Turnout Solutions for the various railway needs from its subsidiary Rahee Track Technologies. Rahee’s research team has successfully developed Canted Turnout Systems to enhance passenger safety and comfort on track. These Turnouts are capable to allow trains to ply on track at 20% higher speed without any jerks and discomfort to passengers. On the Rail Fastenings front the organisation is continually innovating on resilient fastening Systems and noise-vibration solutions from Pandrol Rahee Technologies. Systems are being developed and implemented on track to substantially reduce the noise and vibration from Rail structures in the urban areas. Thereby bringing comfort to the adjoining civil establishments including Schools, Office, residences, and hospitals.
What are your growth plans for your organization in FY 2024-25? Any new manufacturing plant, acquisition or product development in offing?
We are estimating a 25% growth in sales for the organisation in 2024-25. The company has been maintaining a 25% YOY growth since last 3 years and we are confident to deliver a further upside over 30-40% growth from FY 2025-26. Rahee has entered the Viaduct Construction segment for Metros and Railway corridors in 2023, where we expect to see further growth for the company in the next coming years.
We have successfully established a new state-of- the-art Steel Fabrication unit in the state of Odisha which shall commence commercial production from April 2024. The workshop has been established with an annual production capacity of 36000 MT, using latest CNC machines for various production activities. This would help us to cater to the increased demand from the Indian Railways for various infrastructure projects. Rahee is also actively looking at entering new Rail segments including Tunnelling, Track maintenance and other specialised hi-tech track products.
