CONCOR to invest ₹10,000 crore in rolling stock, infrastructure and equipment by 2026

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): The Indian Railways-owned freight movement company Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR) is planning to invest as much as Rs10,000 crores by 2026 in improving infrastructure, rolling stock, containers and equipment. CONCOR is also planning to expand its last-mile logistics business and product offerings to its logistics customers.

According to  V Kalyana Rama, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of CONCOR, the capital expenditure will be mostly funded through internal accruals. “There are about 246 rakes which we have planned, and the procurement action is on at various stages…and on containers…the company is planning to add anywhere between 50,000 and 1,00,000 lakh containers in the next three-four years,” said V Kalyana Rama. As of December end, the CONCOR had about 362 freight trains and 37,000 containers.

The company has set a target of increasing revenue from its domestic operations to 40% of overall revenues in 4-5 years and also plans to expand the movement of bulk commodities, especially cement. Its revenue has traditionally been dominated by the export and import container operations but the same has been impacted in the last two years on account of disruption in the global supply chain which has impacted container movement.

On the domestic operations, the Board of Directors of the company is positive about gaining traction aided by demand for transportation of bulk cement going forward. “On the domestic front, we are expecting very good growth because of the bulk cement (operations) which we have started. We are expecting 12 million tonne traffic in that (cement segment) alone,” said V Kalyana Rama.

On the issue of disinvestment, he said that privatization remains on the cards.

In November 2019, the Union Cabinet approved the sale of 30.8% of the government's stake in the company along with the transfer of management control to a private buyer. The government currently holds 54.80% shares of CONCOR. However, the sale process has been delayed due to issues related to the land license fee, which the company pays to Indian Railways, for running terminals built on Railways land.