VA Tech Wabag Bullish On Second Half With Rs 16,000 Crore Order Book; Eyes New Tech Verticals

Buoyed by a fresh order win from Nepal, VA Tech Wabag Ltd. is gearing up for a strong second half of the financial year, with their prospects being boosted by a robust order book of Rs 16,000 crore and a stragetic focus on multi-lateral funded projects.

In an interview with NDTV Profit, Chairman and Managing Director Rajiv Mittal offered insights into the company's latest order win to build a water treatment plant in Nepal, which is funded entirely by the Asian Development Bank (ADFB).

“This ADB deal is to build a water treatment plant and ADB will be funding the complete project value. And as a company, we always focus on projects which are funded by multilaterals,” he said. “This ensures the project moves on time and also ensures a payment security. In fact almost 90-95% of our order book is from the funded projects.”

The project in Nepal marks Phase III of the Melamchi plant and is expected to be executed within a period of 36 months, the management said. Mittal added that the company's substantial order backlog allows it to be selective in bidding.

“I think the order book... we are close to 16,000 crores which is a very comfortable position for us and enables us to be very selective and choosy in which projects we take,” Mittal said. “We definitely see that this book-to-bill should be more than four years going forward and that's how the market looks at the moment.”

Heading into 2026, VA Tech Wabag is pivoting towards high-technlogy sectors, including future energy solutions and data centres, both of which require complex water treeatment and recylcling capabilities.

“As you know we ourselves have moved into this future energy solutions and today PV solar, semiconductor, green hydrogen has become a norm,” Mittal said, noting that while these may not be massive topline drivers immediately, they are margin-accretive. “I must say that it's not a topline business... we are focusing on technology business, we are focusing on profits, we are focusing on cash.”