State-owned railway consultancy and engineering company RITES has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) to provide specialized consultancy and technical support services for highway and infrastructure projects across North-East and other strategic areas. According to Business Standard, the agreement establishes a framework to enhance project planning, engineering excellence, construction quality and safety standards across NHIDCL's infrastructure portfolio. Under this partnership, RITES will provide a broad spectrum of consultancy services including preparation of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for highways and tunnels, external technical audits and third-party quality assurance, structural health assessments of bridges and flyovers, technical support unit services, road safety audits, crash investigation and mitigation planning, slope stability studies and design services, along with Authority Engineering services for highway, tunnel, and slope stability projects.
State-owned railway consultancy and engineering company RITES has revised the project cost for its railway electrification project between Bidar and Kalaburagi (Gulbarga) in Karnataka to ₹154.66 crore, excluding GST, from the earlier estimate of ₹97.96 crore. According to the latest update from Business Standard, the project involves providing Project Management Consultancy (PMC) services for the electrification of 110 route kilometres (RKM) between Bidar and Kalaburagi on a cost-plus turnkey basis. The revised project cost includes RITES' fees, and the company stated that the order is from a domestic entity and is currently ongoing.
Shares of RITES jumped 2.32% to ₹207.95 on the NSE at 2:06 pm following the project announcement. However, the stock has declined 6.5% over the past month and is down 16.2% so far this year. The transaction is between the government and a government company and does not constitute a related-party transaction, as stated in the company's filing. The order comes as RITES looks to convert its strong order book into revenue growth, with the company having reported a record order book of ₹9,450 crore.
According to Chairman and Managing Director Rahul Mithal, the company's order book remains relatively young, with projects spread over three to four years and now beginning to generate revenue. As reported by CNBC TV18, Mithal stated that "this year if I summarise, it's consolidation to acceleration. We touched an all-time high order book," adding that the company had maintained its track record of securing roughly one order a day, including 128 orders in the latest quarter. He expects the order book to cross ₹10,000 crore in the coming quarters.
The government's approval of ₹20,800 crore for multitracking projects across nine states could provide further opportunities for RITES. The company is involved across various stages of the railway project cycle, including feasibility studies, detailed project reports, alignment surveys, project supervision and technical audits. RITES started FY27 on a steady note, reporting an 8.6% year-on-year increase in revenue to ₹532 crore for the June quarter, with net profit rising 7.7% to ₹98 crore from ₹91 crore a year earlier.
