L&T bags bulk of July infra project orders as awards rise 23%: JM Financial

Infrastructure order awards rise 23% in July; L&T, Adani Energy Solutions lead 

July’s order awards were down 10% year on year, the report said, but that came against a strong base from last year. The month’s total was still well above the FY26 average monthly pace of Rs 94,700 crore, as per the report.

The biggest order went to L&T, which won work worth roughly Rs 30,000 crore from Dutch grid operator TenneT to build offshore converter platforms and associated infrastructure. The company also bagged a Rs 12,500 crore contract from NTPC for two 800 MW ultra-supercritical power units, among other deals. Its total for the month came to Rs 73,800 crore. Adani Energy Solutions was the other major recipient. It won Rs 85 billion of transmission work for green hydrogen and green ammonia projects in Andhra Pradesh, awarded by REC.

Coal India, Astra Microwave, Inox Wind, KEC International win major July orders 

L&T dominated July’s order book, but the report’s list of key awards shows the spread went well beyond the two largest recipients. Coal India won a Rs 2,800 crore contract from Bundelkhand Saur Urja to set up a 600 MW solar plant at Jalaun Solar Park in Uttar Pradesh. Astra Microwave Products secured a Rs 2,200 crore order from HAL to supply active array antenna units and interface frames for the Uttam radar programme.

Inox Wind won a Rs 1,600 crore turnkey wind power project from NLC India, covering turbine supply, EPC and operations and maintenance. KEC International picked up a Rs 1200 crore order to build a 400 kV transmission line to power a data centre in western India, the client for which was undisclosed.

Together, the top orders listed in the report added up to Rs 93,700 crore. Other orders not individually detailed made up the remaining Rs 25,000 crore, taking July’s total to Rs 1.18 lakh crore, the report noted. 

Fresh infrastructure tenders fall 16% in July to Rs 1.5 lakh crore 

According to the report, fresh tenders floated during the month totalled Rs 1.5 lakh crore, down 16% year on year and 12% lower than June. According to the JMFL report, highways and irrigation led the decline. Even so, July’s tendering stayed above the FY26 monthly average of Rs 1.4 lakh crore.

Highways tenders fell 43% year on year to Rs 44,900 crore. Railways moved the other way, up 46% to Rs 29,000 crore. Building tenders slipped 21% to Rs 14,400 crore.

The largest single tender came from the Integrated Industrial Township Greater Noida, which floated a Rs 5,900 crore tender for a greenfield multi-modal logistics hub. NHAI and Western Railway were the biggest issuers for the month, putting out tenders worth Rs 10,100 crore and Rs 7300 crore respectively, the report noted. 

Trailing three-month tendering told a different story. It totalled Rs 5.28 lakh crore, up 25.4% year on year, with highways making up 43% of the total and railways 12%.

NHAI highways tender pipeline rises to Rs 1.42 lakh crore in August 

As per the report, the highways bid pipeline improved to Rs 1.42 lakh crore in August, from Rs 1.32 lakh crore in July. NHAI’s own pipeline stood at Rs 1.1 lakh crore, split across HAM projects worth Rs 41,500 crore, BOT projects worth Rs 44,800 crore and EPC projects worth Rs 26,200 crore.

NHAI built 5,313 km of national highways in FY26, beating its 4,640 km target by about 15%. Construction was still down 13% from a year earlier. Awarding lagged further behind, at 3,124 km against a target of roughly 4,500 km. As per the JMFL report, awarding will pick up in FY27 given the size of the current pipeline.

On monetisation, NHAI raised about Rs 28,300 crore in FY26 through InvITs and toll-operate-transfer bundles. It now plans to monetise 28 operational stretches spanning 1,800 km in FY27, aiming to raise around Rs 35,000 crore.

Under the Bharatmala Pariyojana programme, 26,425 km, about 76% of the phase one target, has been awarded so far. Construction stood at 22,590 km as of March 2026.