IRB Infrastructure Trust has emerged as the highest bidder for a functional highway stretch of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in Odisha with a bid of Rs 3087 crore. This is the second win for IRB in the race for acquiring road assets in the past five weeks.
The highway stretch in the recent win – the 74.5 km of Chandikhole Bhadrak Section of NH-16 in the state of Orissa – is part of Toll Operate Transfer (ToT) Bundle 18. The was also the highest bidder for ToT Bundle 17 in November.
Infra expansion
It had placed a bid of Rs 9270 crore for three road stretches – Lucknow to Ayodhya, Ayodhya to Gorakhpur and Lucknow to Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The length of roads in ToT Bundle 17 was 333.5 km.
With this, the Group has expanded its footprint to 13 states and two in the Eastern Region of India, after the previous one in West Bengal, through Palsit Dankuni NH19 BOT Project, IRB Infrastructure said in a statement.
In return for the upfront payment for these roads in ToT bundles, the company would get the right to collect toll for 20 years from the users.
Virendra D Mhaiskar’s statement
“This achievement further reinforces IRB Infra’s leading position in the TOT space, involving an upfront payment of approximately Rs.34,000 crore to the Government across six TOT assets, and expands our aggregate asset base to approx. Rs.94,000 crore.” Chairman and Managing Director of IRB Infrastructure Developers Virendra D Mhaiskar said in the statement.
The bids for ToT bundles 19,20,21 and 22 are still open and will be concluded in this financial year itself. In 2025-26 the NHAI aims to raise around Rs 40,000 from asset monetisation as against the budget target of Rs 30,000 crore. Of the total target for this year Rs 12357 crore has already been secured. With more ToT Bundles open for bidding and through infrastructure investment trust, the target could easily be reached,
For 2025-26 the NHAI has identified 24 road assets with a total length of 1472 km for monetisation through ToT and InvIT. In 2024-25 the highway builder raised Rs 28,724 crore through monetisation.
