RIIT wins concession of five national highway assets

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has provided five sections of national highways amounting to Rs 9,500 crore and spanning over 260 km across four states to the Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust (RIIT), its first public infrastructure investment trusts (InvIT) for monetisation.

Over the next 3 to 5 years, NHAI plans to provide further assets of about 1,500 km to RIIT, it said in a statement on Monday.

The monetized assets include 80.52 km long Gorhar–Barwa Adda section in Jharkhand, 69.4 km long Chilakaluripet–Vijayawada section in Andhra Pradesh, 32.6 km long Chennai Bypass, 33 km long Chennai–Tada section in Tamil Nadu and 44.6 km long Neelmangla–Tumkur section in Karnataka.


“Through this Public InvIT, retail investors will not only gain the opportunity to earn stable and attractive returns from operational National Highway assets but will also develop a sense of ownership and pride in contributing to the growth of national infrastructure,” Santosh Kumar Yadav, chairman, NHAI said.

The monetisation through public InvIT is aligned with the government’s National Monetisation Pipeline objectives aimed at unlocking value from operational infrastructure assets and enhancing private sector participation in infrastructure management.

A Public Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) is an investment vehicle that enables retail investors to directly invest in and earn income from a pool of operational infrastructure projects.

Units of public InvITs are listed and traded on stock exchanges such as the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and BSE, similar to mutual funds or equities.

RIIMPL is a collaborative venture with equity participation from leading banks and financial institutions including State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, NaBFID, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv Ventures Ltd., HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, IndusInd Bank, and Yes Bank.