Real Growth Will Come From Passenger Rail And Ship Building Segments: MD Titagarh Rail Systems

Umesh Chowdhary, vice chairman and managing director at Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd., joined NDTV Profit for a discussion on company's extension into the shipbuilding business and said that he expects real growth of the company to be derived from the passenger rail segment and the ship building segment.

The MD expressed his elation at the new cabinet decisions which are set to benefit both the railway and the shipbuilding businesses of Titagarh. Talking about the company's ship building venture he said that they have decided to reactivate it and in line of that decision they have founded a new company called the Titagarh Naval Systems Ltd., which, he said "will be a dedicated vehicle to grow our shipbuilding business, and is in turn setting up a state-of-the-art shipyard at Falta."

Elaborating on the choice of the location for the shipbuilding arm, Chowdhary explained that there is not a lot of commotion in the ship building space in the Eastern part of India, except for Garden Reach and therefore they decided to build the shipyard at Falta, West Bengal.

Although, the vice chairman clarified that they are carefully and slowly venturing into the ship building space and have begun with a minimal order book of just 550-600 odd crore, as opposed to the standard in the industry. "We see that this business has a potential to multiply," he added.

Q1 Performance

Titagarh Rail Systems Ltd.'s consolidated net profit was down 54% in the first quarter of the current financial year. Commenting on the same, the MD clarified that it was not because of a dip in government spending but because of supply chain disruption.

He explained how delivery of wheel sets is something that plagues the entire industry but he expects that problem to be permanently solved for Titagarh Rail Systems on account of the joint venture that the company has signed into with Ramkrishna Forgings Ltd. to set up their own wheel set plant.