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RITES Limited, a firm under the Ministry of Railways, for the first time will export in-service diesel locomotives to South Africa from the end of this fiscal year, the company's chairman and managing director, Rahul Mithal, said. Since Indian Railways is almost fully electrified, it is exploring opportunities to export its in-service diesel locomotives, having over 15 years of functional life remaining, he said. RITES has secured orders to export 18 in-service locomotives to South Africa after suitable modifications to suit the country's operational requirements, he said. While RITES has been exporting new locomotives, this is the first time the company has secured an order for the export of in-service locomotives, he added. South Africa follows the Cape Gauge system, where the distance between the tracks is 1,067 mm, whereas India's rail system operates on the Broad Gauge system with a track width of 1,676 mm. "We will deliver the first modified in-service diesel locomotive by .
Proactive efforts to secure export orders for rolling stock and diversify the client base have helped improve our revenue outlook for the coming years, RITES Ltd Chairman and Managing Director Rahul Mithal said. A Navratna public sector undertaking and leading transport and engineering consultancy company, RITES this week reported a 4.3 per cent decline in its consolidated operating revenue in the March quarter to Rs 615 crore compared to Rs 643 crore in the year-ago quarter. Net profit rose by 3.4 per cent year-on-year to Rs 141 crore in the quarter. Mithal told PTI that the company's rolling stock export business was impacted due to a lack of fresh orders from many of its erstwhile African and South Asian clients during the pandemic and post-pandemic periods. He added that the Quality Assurance segment also faced challenges as Indian Railways fixed four entities, for the first time, for the Quality Assurance work through an open tendering process, impacting both the volume and ...