NHAI plan to raise Rs 55,000 crore from market gets government nod

NEW DELHI: To ensure NHAI has no dearth of funds to undertake expansion of highways and building new expressways, the road transport ministry on Tuesday approved the agency's plan to raise up to Rs 55,000 crore during this fiscal.

The ministry has also proposed in a Cabinet note allowing the NHAI to keep the proceeds of completed highway projects that will be sold out for a healthier balance sheet.

Sources said this will help NHAI to raise more funds on its own rather than continuing to depend on more budgetary support.

The ministry has prepared a list of 75 completed projects that can be sold to private players for about 15 years under a new model named Toll-Operate-Transfer. Ministry expects to generate at least Rs 40,000-Rs 50,000 crore upfront revenue from selling of these projects.

At present, these stretches annually generate Rs 4,400 crore toll revenue."Earlier proposal was to transfer entire proceeds to Consolidated Fund of India. But in that case NHAI has to depend on the budgetary support. We hope all departments would support this proposal," said an official.