AEL, SCI, Titagarh Rail, Cochin Shipyard: What Elara says on railway, airport, road & shipping sectors
NEW DELHI : Elara Securities, which recently hosted Elara India Infrastructure Conference, said it is optimistic on the prospects of shipping and airports and has a ‘neutral’ stance on railways and roads sectors. The broking firm sees the government spending picking up from FY26 onwards and believes incremental growth will be seen in sectors such as ports, shipping, aviation, and urban infra, but drift away from traditional sectors such as roads and railways.
In the shipping & ports sector, Elara mentioned that India targets to become a global maritime powerhouse with an expected investment outlay of Rs 70-80 lakh crore until 2047 across port modernisation, shipbuilding & repair, port-led industrialisation and green initiatives.
“The Sagarmala Development Corporation is likely to act as a catalyst to finance maritime development projects as it has applied for an NBFC license and will tie up with PSU-lending agencies to fund large projects. Odisha is taking the lead to allocate land for development of shipping clusters,” Elara said.
This brokerage sees Shipping Corporation of India Ltd (SCI), Adani Ports & SEZ, JSW Infrastructure Ltd, Cochin Shipyard Ltd, ITD Cementation Ltd and Afcons Infrastructure Ltd, to emerge as key beneficiaries of the same.
In the airports sector, the government noted targets to make India the third-largest civil aviation market in the next 10 years. It has planned Rs 90,000 crore outlay toward airport infrastructure in the next five years with Rs 52,000 crore for private airports (Chennai, Mumbai & Jhewar), Rs 30,000 crore for Airport Authority of India (AAI) existing airports and Rs 5,000 crore for other State airports.
Elara said key beneficiaries of the aviation sector growth will be GMR Airports and Adani Enterprises Ltd (Adani Airports)
In the railways sector, Indian Railways capex could rise up to Rs 3 lakh crore gradually from Rs 2.7 lakh crore in FY26, flat YoY. “Growth would be driven by rolling stock, network infrastructure, safety, station redevelopment as IR looks to reduce logistics cost as per cent of GDP to 9 per cent like other countries vs 14 per cent for India currently. Safety is at the forefront with an investment of Rs 70,000-80,000 crore planned for the Kavach program and bids for 14,000 km invited so far. IR is also working on new projects such as Bullet & hydrogen trains, and Hyperloop, to modernize customer experience,” Elara said.
It sees ABB India, Siemens India, CG Power, BEML and Titagarh Rail as key beneficiaries of the same.
In the roads transport, Elara is expecting awarding to pick up gradually from FY26 as 8,000-10,000km of projects have an in-principal approval for augmentation works from existing Bharatmala Phase I program.
“Focus is on debt repayment, PPP projects and execution & funding through States. Plans are underway to modify qualification criteria to enforce quality execution. FY26 targets new project awards of 5,000-6,000km. We remain neutral on road EPC companies,” it said.
Source : BT