GMR enters railway construction sector.

As a part of its diversification moves, infrastructure conglomerate GMR Group has entered the railway construction sector. Recently, the group's flagship company GMR Infrastructure Ltd. said a consortium led by the company has secured a construction package for rail line doubling between Jhansi and Bhimsen stations in Uttar Pradesh.

GMR is the lead member of the consortium, with Tata Projects Ltd. and Kalindee Rail Nirman (Engineers) Ltd. as partners. The contract is valued at Rs.267 crore, of which GMR's share of work is about Rs.135 crore. Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. has issued the letter of award to the GMR consortium on 20 February.

Arun Kumar Sharma, chief executive officer at GMR's urban infrastructure and highways unit, said this contract will pave the way for similar projects in future.

At present, GMR Infrastructure is present in airports, energy, highways and urban infrastructure sectors. The group’s entry in railway construction comes at a time when the construction sector, India's second largest employer, is projected to grow at a meagre 1.4% on an average in 2012-13 and 2013-14, data released by the statistics department on Friday showed.


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During 2009-10 and 2011-12, the sector added 6.2 million jobs when it was growing at an average of 7.7% a year. The construction sector, which includes real estate development and the building of roads and highways, is estimated to have grown at a paltry 0.6% in the fiscal third quarter ended 31 December, data released by the statistics department recently.