ConCor stock hits new 52-week high, ends 8.5% higher: How Cabinet decision on Railway land leasing policy has fuelled the rally

ConCor Stock: Divestment-bound Container Corporation of India (ConCor) shares touched a new 52-week high of Rs 766.3 per share on the BSE on Wednesday’s session and closed over 8.5 per cent higher to Rs 726 per share levels on the exchange.  

The stock that was trading around Rs 650 apiece levels, however, witnessed a steep surge during the afternoon session around 01:00 PM in the anticipation of Union Cabinet's impending policy announcement on railway land leasing.  

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a policy for long-term leasing of railway land for implementing PM Gati Shakti framework, an official press statement said. Under it, long-term leasing of railway land for a period of 35 years would be enabled for setting up cargo terminals. 

In the next five years, 300 cargo terminals would be set up on railway land. 

After the Union Cabinet meeting Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said that apart from leasing the land for setting up cargo terminals, these land parcels would also be used for setting up social infrastructures like hospitals and schools through public-private partnership mode. 

Thakur informed that land would be leased for new stakeholders for up to 35 years at 1.5 per cent of the market value of the land. Existing stakeholders can participate in this scheme through a transparent bidding system, he added. 

The government has been trying to divest ConCor since 2019-20. In this regard, the cabinet has also approved the around 31 per cent stake sale in ConCor in November 2019, along with the transfer of management control, however, the delay was mainly due to new land leasing fee policy. 

Earlier in May, sources had told Zee Business Special Correspondent Tarun Sharma that the railway land lease percentage issue is set to get resolved as the company is now ready to reduce the land lease percentage to 3 per cent from 6 per cent. It was said that the land lease rate will have an important role to play in Government's Gati Shakti plans.