NHAI has invited proposals from agencies to study and identify an inventory of road projects that can be monetised to meet its non-budgetary funding requirement over the next few years. This comes after the government’s asset monetization drive.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has sought request for proposals for empanelment of agencies ‘for preparation/submission of report on inventory of highway assets, assessing existing physical condition of the national highway stretches under consideration for award on toll-operate-transfer (TOT) model.
The government approved the TOT model in 2016 for monetisation of publicly-funded highways. Under this, investors make a one-time lump sum payment in exchange for long-term toll collection rights. The proposal from NHAI to establish an inventory of projects also identified around 600 km of stretches traversing through Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab that could be offered in a TOT bundle.
A government official said that NHAI has already prepared detailed project reports (DPRs) for TOT bundles 4,5 and 6. He also added that it is calling experts to create an inventory of projects in the future. These TOT bundles will be offered in average stretches of 500 km.
Earlier this month, NHAI chairman Nagendra Nath Sinha said there was “push” from the highest quarters of the government to go big on the asset monetisation drive. Sinha had said that the authority has already studied road stretches of around 5,000 km to be offered on the TOT mode, and could potentially monetise around 15,000 km of road stretches by 2025.
NHAI had invited bids for TOT bundle 3 in June this year for
a cumulative 566 km of highway stretches in Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and
Uttar Pradesh with the floor price set at Rs 4,995 crores. The first round of
TOT auctions got the government Rs 9,681 crore against the initial estimated
concession value (IECV) of Rs 6,258 crores set by the government.
The second round of auctions, however, was cancelled in
February this year as response from the developers remained tepid.
NHAI is now in the process of making TOT
projects more attractive to bring in smaller investors. Among other things, it
is considering to offer packages in a mix of 15 and 30 years of lease
period.
As part of a revised strategy for implementation of the Bharatmala programme — which entails construction of 60,000 kms of national highways across the country — NHAI also plans to prioritise projects with financial viability so they can be recycled soon after they are constructed.
Source: Economic Times
