Retail investors may get InvITs for building highways

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has said that about 10 public InvITs for road projects in different categories and geographies would be launched in phases. The first such project is expected in the next one month to raise money from the public and make them part of India’s highway development programme. “The plan is to raise money for highway development from the public to widen the investment basket in road InvITs, which largely get money from long-term institutional investors, insurance and pension funds and private equity firms. The public can get assured returns on such investments, helping them to benefit from the country’s infrastructure development programme, Gadkari told Mint. InvITs (infrastructure investment trusts) enable direct monetary investment by individual and institutional investors in infrastructure projects, which earn them a small portion of the income as return. So far all road sector InvITs have been private trusts, and getting retail investors on board would require approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to open up its upcoming InvIT to retail investors and is also looking at ways to allow this class access to its toll-operate-transfer (TOT) projects, reports said.See also: In a first, ministry to conduct quality checks of new roads BMC claims 50% of work on Coastal Road second tunnel done