By Team InBilt
Published on 23rd October, 2026
It has been an interesting six months for India’s railway sector and those invested in building them. Since May, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA), has cleared proposals for various multi-tracking projects across different states, involving an investment of close to Rs 60,000 crore and to be built between now and 2030.
Promising Spends
The CCEA approvals are on expected lines, as for the last few years, the capital outlay dedicated to the railways sector, has been upwards of Rs 2 trillion, with it being Rs 2.9 trillion for the current financial year. The optimism around the sector and its potential for growth opportunities, is warranted.
Between FY26 and 2030, Suprio Banerjee, Vice President and Co-Group Head of ICRA notes, “the cumulative CAPEX requirement, as per our estimates, is expected to be in the range of Rs 14 trillion, wherein the key contributors will be high-speed rail, rolling stock and then other segments including station re-development. So, between now and FY30, there are going to be ample opportunities in the railway sector.” Banerjee told InBilt, when asked if there is more that Indian EPC companies could expect as opportunities from the sector in the years to come.
Translated into Opportunities
JM Financials in a monthly wrap on the sector noted, trailing three months’ tendering activity rose 10% YoY in August 2026 led by Railways and Real Estate.
The increase in spends and hence tenders and awards, do reflect in the orderbooks of various companies, but they surely remain a mixed bag. IRCON International’s order book as of June, 2026 was at Rs 23,000 crore, 77 per cent of this comes from railways. This number has grown from Rs 20,973 crore, a year ago. For others such as Rail Vikas Nigam, where the orderbook is a combination of railway maintenance and competitively won railway projects, the growth has been impressive given the high-base. In FY26, the company’s order book stood at Rs 99200 crore, compared to Rs 89000 crore a year ago from that.
Segmented Growth
As Banerjee notes, railway orders can be seen in three main buckets – high-speed rail, rolling stock and then other segments including station re-development. At the moment, the first and biggest bucket, appears to see more momentum, with multiple multi-tracking projects at different stages of approvals. Banerjee also notes, “There has been sharp growth in customer amenities in budgetary allocation also over the year. It used to be only 1 per cent of the total rail budget in FY 2020, which has risen to 4 per cent in FY2027, also on a higher budgetary base. In FY2020 this base was roughly ~Rs 1.4 trillion, in FY2027, it stood at around ~Rs 2.8 trillion.”
Challenges
The growth opportunities are not without its own hiccups. Banerjee said, “In terms of challenges, we have seen project execution delays coming from recurring issues like land acquisition hurdles, environmental clearances, inter-agency coordination, contractual disputes, and occasionally case-specific funding issues.”
For now, what appears at play is engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies also diversifying their order book in tandem to how the infrastructure growth story in India is evolving. At Rs 2.9 trillion annual outlay, the sector is promising, but most are keeping bets diversified both in terms of sub-sectors within railways and that of the larger infrastructure gamut.
