NHAI eyes $500 million with monetisation of 5 projects

New Delhi: After putting up nine National Highways (NH) for monetisation that will garner USD 1 billion to the government, NHAI plans to auction a shorter bundle of 5 highways in the next tranche that could attract USD 500 million, an official said.

The Cabinet last year had authorised National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to monetise operational NH projects completed under public funding for potential monetisation using the toll-operate-transfer (TOT) model.

"More than 10 bidders have evinced interest in the first bundle of nine highway stretches put for auction. We are expecting USD 1 billion in March from monetisation of these highways," an NHAI official told PTI.

The bids will be finalised on January 7 while the funds will come to the government by March, he said.

The official said the next bundle to be put up for auction would be shorter.

"The next bundle of projects for monetisation will be shorter. A total of five projects will be there. We are expecting USD 500 million from that," the official said.

For the first time ever, monetisation of 82 operating highways under a low risk TOT model has been initiated.

Road Transport, Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has earlier said the corpus generated from proceeds of such project monetisation could be utilised by the government to meet its fund requirements regarding future development.

Besides, the funds could be used for operation and maintenance of highways and could address development/strengthening of highways in unviable geographies.