Roads ministry red flags NHAI’s Rs 10K cr bond issue
The red flag from the roads ministry has come after the finance ministry had expressed concerns over the inability of the highways authority to fully utilise the money raised through tax-free bonds in the last fiscal.
NHAI had raised Rs 10,000 crore through tax-free bonds in 2011-12 but could not utilise full funds owing to slow pace of awards. The authority also had permission to raise Rs 10,000 crore in the current fiscal but that is unlikely to happen.
“The ministry (road transport) is against us going ahead with the bond issue and it is highly unlikely that we will go ahead with it. But, going ahead, not raising money in the current fiscal will tighten our funding for projects,” said a senior NHAI official.
The official added that in the next four years the authority will have an outlay of around Rs 60,000 crore and they need to start raising funds towards it.
“Our plan is to award around 12,000 km length of projects on Engineering Procurement Contract in the next three years. Apart from that, we do not see our projects going on premium anymore and that will further constraint our finances. No less than Rs 60,000 crore will be required in the next three to four years. This tax-free issue would have helped
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