NHAI to raise Rs 20,000 cr from road assets monetisation in 2022-23

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to monetise highway stretches with a combined length of 1,750 km in 2022-23, a move which enables it to raise about Rs 20,000 crore.

It has made an indicative list of road assets to be monetised in the current fiscal year, which comprises 14 stretches with lengths between 6.49 km and 280 km in various parts of the country.

Asset monetisation is central to the plan of NHAI to mitigate its debt burden, which stood at Rs 3.5 trillion at the end of the last fiscal year. Monetisation of operational assets will be via the infrastructure investment trusts (InvIT), toll-operate-transfer (TOT), and toll securitisation modes.

The NHAI recently cancelled the bidding processes for two TOT bundles — sixth and eighth — as the highest bids did not match up to its expectations.

In 2022-23, the NHAI will not borrow from the market. The budgetary outlay for the agency this year is evaluated at Rs 1.34 trillion, much more than the level in recent years.

Crisil’s Jagannarayan Padmanabhan said the authority to sail via the revised target for the current fiscal year comfortably provided the current level of investors’ appetite.

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Also read: NHAI to award 6,500 km NH construction contracts this FY