The Ministry of Railways is developing a National Rail Plan, 2030 to provide a long term perspective to plan for augmenting the railway network. NRP-2030 will endeavor to harmonise and integrate the rail network with other modes of transport and create synergy for achieving a seamless multi modal transportation network across the country.

The Indian Railways is gearing itself to add as much as 1.5% to India’s GDP by building infrastructure to support 40% model freight share of India’s economy. Major electrification plans are underway to electrify additional routes which will augur well for CMI limited. 

The  government’s increasing focus on safety, infrastructure development, and electrification and energy efficiency has led to significant rise in the order inflows .Further, plans to award Public-Private Partnership projects for supply and manufacturing of Electric Multiple Unit (EMUs), DFC, high-speed rail and metro projects are expected to boost the country’s rail sector and also Companies involved in this space.

The Bullet Train

Another ambitious project of the Government of India is the construction and commissioning of India’s first high-speed train, the Bullet Train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Construction of the corridor began in August 2018 with the acquisition of land for the Sabarmati terminus. The marquee train is scheduled to do its maiden run on the 15th August 2022.

Additionally, the new lines and the other proposed Bullet trains / High speed train projects will definitely enhance the demand for the specialized cables for this category.

Metro Projects – Setting new standards in efficiency

No economy in the world can expect to grow at a fast pace unless it has a robust urban transport system in place. In India, the Metro Rail Project has been one of our most ambitious projects. During its many years of operations, it has successfully provided the much-needed filip to our economy and bridged the transport gap for the citizens of India, significantly.

While cities like Delhi and Kolkata have their own fully functional metro networks, which have already become the pride of those cities, smaller cities like Jaipur, Lucknow and Nagpur now also have a Metro network benefitting the residents of the city in a big way.

According to reports, many more Indian cities are expected to get fully functional metro networks in the future.

 Investments in Metro Rail infrastructure development have increased significantly from Rs.587 billion in FY2014-15 to Rs.1.48 trillion for FY2018-19, growing at a CAGR of 26% over the last four years.

Today, the Indian renewable energy market is one of the most attractive renewable energy markets in the world, standing at 4th position amongst all nations.

In fact India’s installed renewable power generation capacity has increased at a fast pace over the past few years, posting a CAGR of 19.78 % between FY14–18. As India looks to meet its energy demand on its own, which is expected to reach 15,820 TWh by year 2040, renewable energy is set to play an important role in our Country’s future growth.

Another innovative technology that is set to revolutionize infrastructure solutions all over the world is Fast Charging of electrical automotives. This breakthrough technology for e-mobility is dependent on the time taken for the charging process and a charging infrastructure that’s user friendly.

As per a Government of India estimate, 25 percent of all vehicles on Indian roads by 2030 will be electric vehicles, warranting a widespread, robust electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure across the country. The government has already issued a set of guidelines to construct charging stations for electric vehicles across the country, indicating ways to build such charging points every few kilometers.

The instant charging technology is expected to impact the home and institutional delivery sector, freight careers, taxi owners and transporters in a big way. When this technology finally makes its presence felt in India, the Wire and Cables industry will benefit immensely from it.

The ambitious Smart Cities project of the Government of India is well on its course. It is estimated that 20 smart cities will be ready by 2021. Data sourced from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development suggests that projects worth Rs 50,221 crore are under implementation, out of which projects worth Rs 9,981 crore have already been completed.

Each city under this mission will have an integrated command and control centres (ICCC). At present, 11 cities have operational ICCCs; centres in 29 cities are under construction; while tenders for 21 more have been processed. The ICCCs are designed to enable authorities to monitor the status of various amenities in real time. The centres will control and monitor online water and power supply, sanitation, traffic movement, integrated building management, city connectivity and the Internet infrastructure.

All the projects under smart city mission, when completed will create immense opportunities for the Wire and Cable industry

India boasts of the world’s second-largest telecommunications market, with around 1.20 billion subscribers as of December 2018. The telecom market can be split into three segments – wireless, wireline and internet services. The wireless market segment comprises 98.20 per cent of the total subscriber base, as of February 2019. Wireless subscriptions witnessed a CAGR of 19.61 per cent to reach 1,183.41 million at the end of FY18.

To propel the sector on a growth path, the Government of India has launched the National Digital Communications Policy, 2018, which envisages attracting investments worth US$ 100 billion in the telecommunications sector by 2022.

The power sector in India has been on a consistent upswing and is currently experiencing an exponential growth in its fortunes.

Today, India has emerged as the world’s third largest electricity producer and has a total installed power generating capacity of 3,46,048 MW.

Further, a total capacity addition of 58,384 MW from conventional sources has been envisaged for the period 2017-2022, consisting of 47,855 MW of coal-based power stations, 406 MW of gas-based power stations, 6,823 MW of hydro power stations and 3,300 MW of nuclear stations. In addition, there has been a big thrust by the government for setting up renewable power generation capacity of 175 GW by the year 2022.

Of late, India has made significant strides in expanding access to electricity, connecting all of India’s population to the grid and expanding the power supply to 24 hours a day this would increase the income of rural households by USD 9.4 billion a year, while eliminating power shortages would prevent an estimated  USD 22.7 billion a year in business losses.

A challenging task indeed for all the stakeholders in this sector