Pradeep Gaur
Chairman & Managing Director
It's a matter of profound honour to present the 20th Annual Report
of your Company. The audited accounts of the Company for the financial year 2022-23, along
with the Directors' Report and reports of Auditors and comments of Comptroller and
Auditor General of India have been circulated.
Your Company was established with the mandate of fast track
implementation of rail infrastructure projects working for and on behalf of Ministry of
Railways as its executing arm. The contribution of RVNL is amply demonstrated by its
performance and in 30 Project Implementation Units established at 24 locations across the
length and breadth of the Country. RVNL is executing projects in all the Zonal Railways
and 19 States of the Country.
It is my absolute delight to inform that considering the consistent
outstanding performance of your organization, the Union Government has upgraded the status
of your organization from Schedule-1 Mini Ratnato NAVARATNA during this financial
year. With Navaratna 1 status, there is greater freedom and responsibility. I
am sure that your company will scale newer heights.
Financial Performance
In 2022-23, RVNL increased its expenditure on project execution from Rs
19,381.71 crore to Rs 20,281.57 crore thus crossing the coveted milestone of Rs 20,000
crore, which excludes the element of Rs 3343.47 crore as GST. This reflects an increase of
4.64%.
Profit Before Tax increased from Rs 1406.10 crore in 2021-22 crore to
Rs 1644.38 crore in 2022-23, and Profit After Tax (PAT) of the Company is at Rs 1267.41
crore, showing an increase of 16.57 % over the previous year.
In view of the improved financial performance, the Directors of your
Company have recommended/paid payment of the highest ever dividend (Interim and Final) of
Rs 444.11 crore for 2022-2023, compared to Rs 329.43 crore in the previous year. As a
result, the effective management fee of RVNL got reduced from 8.5% to 6.58%, With this,
the cumulative Dividend paid to the Ministry stands at Rs 1826.34 crore (excluding Rs.
75.06 crores towards final dividend recommended by the Board of Directors to the
Shareholders) .
In 2022-23, RVNL increased its expenditure on project execution from Rs
19,381.71 crore to Rs 20,281.57 crore thus crossing the coveted milestone of Rs 20,000
crore, which excludes the element of Rs 3343.47 crore as GST. This reflects an increase of
4.64%.
Physical performance
Doubling / New Line / Gauge Conversion:
During the year, RVNL again crossed 1000 km commissioning benchmark for
New Lines, Doublings and Gauge Conversion. 1343.30 km of project length was commissioned
consisting of 119 km of New Line, 925.00 km of Doubling and 299.3 km of Railway
Electrification. These were handed over to Zonal Railways for operations. Additionally,
Railway Electrification of 655 km was also carried out as part of Doubling.
During 2022-23, 863.02 km project length was completed including 67.06
km of New Line, 497.88 km of Doubling, 271.12 km of Railway Electrification and 26.96 km
of Metropolitan Transport Project (MTP). In addition, Railway Electrification of 334.59 km
was also carried out as part of Doubling.
During the year, eight important projects were fully commissioned.
These are:
a) Sambalpur-Titlagarh (182 km)
b) Bhimsen-Jhansi (206 km) with RE
c) Daund- Gulbarga- Doubling (224.9 km)
d) Pune- Guntakal -Electrification (641.37 km)
e) Vijaywada-Gudivada- Bhimavaram-Narasapur, Gudivada-Machlipatnam and
Bhimavaram- Nidadavolu (221 km) - Doubling with electrification
f) Bina -Kota (282.66 km) with electrification,
g) Palanpur- Samakhiali (247.73 km)
h) Raipur-Titlagarh (203 km) doubling project.
Railway Electrification:
During the year, with the focus of the Ministry on the commissioning of
Railway Electrification projects, Company commissioned 299.3 Route km (681.6 Track km) of
pure Railway Electrification works on important routes. Apart from pure RE work, 655 km of
RE was also commissioned with the doubling projects. Thus, 924.30 km of electrified
sections were commissioned in 2022-23. Railway Electrification of Sambalpur-Titlagarh
Doubling project (96.596 km) & Palanpur- Samakhiali (247.73 km) project was fully
commissioned during the year.
Signalling & Telecom:
Signaling & Telecommunication (S&T) domain is a core expertise
of providing signalling solutions for efficient and safe operation of trains on Indian
Railways. There has been a significant induction of modern technologies on Indian Railways
namely Electronic Interlocking (EI), Digital Axle Counters, Fibre Optic Cable Network
facilitating capacity building in the recent years.
The technology driven advancement is primarily aimed to achieve high
level of safety in train operations and increased speeds of trains with higher density of
traffic. This ensures the turnaround time of Freight Trains is minimal as well as punctual
operation of Coaching Trains is achieved. With tireless effort of S&T team of RVNL in
the area of Railway Infrastructure, Indian Railways is able to achieve many milestones in
the sector of freight loading and operation of large number of passenger trains across the
length and breadth of the country.
RVNL is a major contributor in providing EI installations on Indian
Railways in connection with most complicated projects of Doubling, 3rd Line, New Line and
Gauge Conversion. Keeping its tradition high, during FY 202223, RVNL has commissioned 93
new EI/PIs installations on Indian Railways. Apart from new EIs; RVNL has commissioned
Alterations in 53 Els/PIs installations on Indian Railways.
RVNL has also commissioned many Major Yard remodellings of Bhatinda RRI
Station (717 signaling routes), Kota station (534 signaling routes), Garwha Road station
(336 signaling routes), Titlagarh (254 signaling routes), VKT station (249 signaling
routes), ANB station (192 routes) & PGU station (177 routes) thus manifesting its
technical + managerial capability.
RVNL executed 146 Non-Interlocking (NIs) of stations for commissioning
of Doubling & 3rd Line projects during the year. RVNL also commissioned the high
number of 52 IBS/Auto signals and Interlocking of 46 midsection level crossing gates. Not
only on the Signalling front, but RVNL also had the incredible achievement in
telecommunication by providing 1350 km of Fibre Optic Network and 6 Quad Cable network
during the year.
Railway Board in recognition of RVNL's core competence, entrusted
RVNL to approve Logic & Interface Circuits on its own through 3rd Party IRSTELO
license holders for CR, SCR, WR & WCR up to 75 routes. RVNL has approved Logic &
Interface Circuits of 104 stations.
Hill Railway Projects:
Extraordinary progress was made on the hill rail projects assigned to
RVNL, that is, the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag section in Uttarakhand, Bhanupali-Bilaspur-Beri
section in Himachal Pradesh and Budni- Barkhera- 3rd line project in Madhya Pradesh. 100
km of tunnelling was completed by RVNL in 2022-23. In manifestation of its technological
prowess, two tunnel boring machines were commissioned by RVNL for the first time in
Himalayan geology in Indian Railways.
Workshops:
RVNL has always shown its capability for planning and delivery of
State-of-the-Art Railway Workshops and augmentation of capacity of Production Units. RVNL
had successfully completed 13 workshop projects upto 2021-22. During the year, 4 Workshop
projects and 1 Metro Depot were fully completed.
Rail Coach Naveenikaran Karkhana, Jhansi: The workshop was
completed in September 2022.
EMU Car Shed, Ranaghat: The workshop was completed in December
2022.
Infrastructure facility at Jheel siding Coaching Depot, Howrah: The
workshop was completed in January 2023.
Tower Wagon POH Shed, Dullahapur: The workshop was completed in
March 2023.
Metro Depot Augmentation, Kavi Subhash: This depot is part of Dum
Dum - New Gharia Via Rajerhat Metro Railway Project and was completed in September 2022.
Metro Projects:
The projects of Kolkata Metro has continuous challenge of acquisition
of land, clearances and removal of hindrances by the local authorities.
With the proactive support from the Ministry of Railways and State
Government, the projects got the required push. During the year, Joka- Taratala (13.02 km)
section of Joka- Esplanade section of Kolkata Metro and New Garia- Hemanta Mukherjee (11.0
km) section of New Garia- Biman Bandar Section of Metro Railway were commissioned.
Pamban - Vertical Lifting Bridge:
The work on the country's only movable bridge at Rameshwaram is
progressing well with the state of Art technology and best technical expertise. This work
will be completed in 2023-24.
Special Purpose Vehicles:
RVNL has taken the lead for establishing five joint venture Special
Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) in partnership with various stakeholders including Ports, Mines,
State Governments etc. for implementation of rail connectivity project. RVNL has
contributed an equity of Rs 1143.70 crore, against which projects worth Rs 11816 crore are
being implemented with contribution of equity by the project partners and raising of funds
through Financial Institutions. It is a matter of absolute satisfaction that all the five
projects have been commissioned.
These SPVs have generated Rs. 1,00,052 crore revenue for Indian
Railways, without any additional investment. In FY 2022-23, these SPVs handled 38093
loaded rakes and 103.18 MT freight loading was handled.
Doubling of 247 km of the Kutch Railway line between Palanpur and
Samakhiali which is being funded completely by the SPV at an estimated cost of Rs 2867
crore, has been taken up by RVNL on behalf of the SPV and was commissioned on 24.02.2023.
Electrification of this line at an estimated cost of Rs 755 crore was also commissioned on
30.03.2023 with exclusive SPV funding.
During the year, Angul-Sukinda New Line project 95 km became
operationalised in January 2023. Major beneficiaries of this line would be steel plants in
Angul region (transporting iron ore from Banspani and Chromate from Sukinda) and coal
based thermal power plants in Sukinda receiving thermal coal from Talcher coal fields 177
loaded rakes were handled in the month of March 2023.
New Horizons: Works through Open Bidding
I am very happy to inform you that your company is very vibrant and are
salient organisation. We have successfully ventured into a new phase by obtaining mega
infrastructure projects through Open bidding.
During the year, RVNL bagged following major works:
r Construction of Single BG Tunnel Line No. 06 (approx. length 4930m)
in connection with DMV- Kohima new BG Line Project,
Y Development of Kharicut Canal
v Development of the UTF Harbour Project in Maldives
v Construction of Six Lane Elevated Kona Expressway in the state of
West Bengal
Y Construction of 6-lane Greenfield Varanasi-Ranchi- Kolkata Highway
from Sonepurbigha village to junction with NH-22 (Chatra Bypass) near Chatra under
Bharatmala Pariyojana in the state of Jharkhand
Y Provision of Automatic Block Signalling with Dual MSDAC, EI/OC
interface and Block Optimization in Southern Railway (Reach-I, II & III)
Y Construction of Elevated Viaduct (approximate length of 10 km), nine
(9) Elevated Metro Stations for Chennai Metro
Y Construction of Bhesan Depot Cum Workshop for Surat Metro Rail
Project etc.
All the works are progressing well thus manifesting RVNL's
technical capabilities and its versatility.
I am confident that with taking works through open bidding, your
company will now scale greater heights without limiting only to Railway sector.
Human Resource Development
The primary focus of RVNL Management has been to not only attract
highly motivated, skilled, and experienced manpower but also to retain them by
facilitating the right environment, competitive perks and ample opportunities for a better
career progression through training and support.
I am happy to report that HR team of your company has taken commendable
initiatives in 2022-2023 for improving the satisfaction level of employees as detailed
below:
(T) Not only timely promotions were made but also orders were issued
even before completion of requisite years of service in the particular grade resulting in
no loss of service for further promotion.
(2) Gratuity Trust- Previously provision of gratuity was made
each quarter to meet with the future liability of gratuity payment to the employee without
channelizing through any Gratuity Trust/Fund manager. Now Gratuity Trust has been created
thereby financial prudence has been introduced.
(3) RVNL Medical and Welfare scheme- RVNL Medical and Welfare
Scheme which provides medical benefits to retired employees of RVNL and meets other
emergency needs of employees in distress was last updated in April 2018. The same has been
amended incorporating changes and also streamlined the management of funds duly approved
by BOD. Some of the amendments have also been incorporated in the Medical Rule of RVNL
employees, thereby giving more medical benefits to the employees.
(4) Various Competency building and training initiatives including
online training of staff were taken such as training in Tunnels & Tunnelling, GST-ITC,
Works Construction, RCM, Litigation Handling etc., Project Management, PPP and Project
Finance, Overview of GFR & Public Procurement through GeM (with latest Amendments).
(T) RVNL has been following Government Policies diligently in regard to
procurement through GeM and effective implementation of Public Procurement Policy for
MSEs.
v Out of total procurement of Rs. 43.36 crore of Goods & Services
for the year 2022-23, GeM procurement was 42.87% against the target of 25%.
v MSMS procurement was 41.78% against target of 25%.
Y Procurement through woman entrepreneur was 6.84% against the target
of 3%.
Y Inspite of best efforts, procurement through SC/ST vendors was 1.13%
against target of 4% due to reasons entirely beyond our control.
Corporate Social Responsibility
RVNL is conscious of its social responsibility. During 2022-23, the
Company spent Rs 26.26 crore on CSR initiatives, which is more than 2 percent of PBT for
the last three proceedings Financial Years i.e. Rs 23.68 crore. Rs 22.13 lakh set off in
pursuance of sub-rule (3) of rule 7 of the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014 due to
excess expenditure more than 2 percent in last financial 2021
22. Thus, CSR liabilities of RVNL in FY 2022-23 was Rs 23.46 crore. The
main focus of the Company is in the areas of education, health, and sanitation.
MOU Performance
It is with a great deal of satisfaction that based on the overall
performance, your Company has got 97.83 marks out of 100. It retained
‘Excellent' rating by Department of Public Enterprises for the financial year
2021-22. The company has been rated Excellent for 12th consecutive year. The grading
achieved by your company was highest among Railway CPSEs.
ISO certifications
I am happy to inform that during the year, RVNL has achieved ISO
certifications on ISO 9001, ISO 14001 & ISO 45001 for Quality Management System,
Environmental Management System & Occupational Health & Safety Management System
on 24.03.2023. This Certification is a stamp on the commitment of RVNL as an organization
to ensure Quality in all its processes and deliverables, sensitivity towards environment
and providing safe and healthy work environment to the all our employees. Apart from this,
ISO is also playing an important role in efficiency improvement of your organization.
Corporate Governance
RVNL maintains a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that
the authority of decision making is exercised with due care and responsibility, to meet
the aspirations of Shareholders and society. Your Company complies meticulously with all
legal requirements and Government guidelines regarding Corporate Governance. A Report on
Corporate Governance and Management Discussion and Analysis forms part of the Annual
Report.
Acknowledgements
In the end, I would like to mention that all the achievements of RVNL,
would not have been possible without the wholehearted support provided by Indian Railways.
I am also grateful for the encouragement and confidence reposed in RVNL by the Chairman
and Members of the Railway Board and other officers, that helped RVNL in contributing
substantially to its development.
I, express my sincere thanks to our esteemed Shareholders, Ministry of
Finance, Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Heavy Industries, the State
Governments, Zonal Railways, ADB, IRFC, Financial Institutions, C&AG's office,
our bankers and stakeholders in various railway projects and national and international
contractors for their unstinted cooperation to RVNL. I would also like to place on record
my deep appreciation for the devotion and dedication of all my fellow RVNL employees who
have been pillars of strength for the Company and have delivered their best despite
challenges.
Sd/-
Pradeep Gaur
Chairman & Managing Director