The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will prepare a register of highway stretches having monetisation potential in the long term, as it aims to maximise the value of assets.
At present, the authority publishes a list of highways that it intends to monetise through the toll-operate-transfer (TOT) mode or infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) every year. The proposed register will be in addition to the annual list and will help investors in framing their strategies, officials said.
This financial year’s monetisation list has 24 highway stretches with a total length of 1,472 km. This year’s Budget has fixed the monetisation target at Rs 30,000 crore, but it could be raised as the latest asset monetisation strategy document lays down aggressive moves on asset sales.
The asset register will include all technical and financial details needed to determine the monetisation potential of an asset.
Based on the traffic and revenue potential, assets that will be offered for monetisation will be categorised as highly attractive, moderately attractive, potentially attractive, and assets with low revenue per kilometre. These classes will help create balanced bundles of assets to be offered for monetisation through TOT or InvIT. Highways stretches that have low revenue per kilometre will be kept out of the bundles.
Assets with varying revenue per km and revenue growth will be combined into bundles so as to balance immediate returns with future growth potential, making the bundles both more attractive and less risky for investment, the strategy document said.
For inclusion in the register, a highway has to be operational for at least a year and all works on it should be complete and should not require any enhancement works in the near future.
The assets to be included in the register should have significant toll revenue so as to sustain positive cash flows and provide sufficient returns to the concessionaire. Currently, the assets with more than Rs 0.8 crore per kilometre per year toll revenue are being considered for monetisation.
Only those highway corridors that are free of encumbrances, disputes, arbitrations, or any other legal liabilities will make it to the list.
According to the document, the NHAI will launch a public InvIT and offer three bundles for monetisation every quarter. The public InvIT that will enable retail participation in highway monetisation programme will be in addition to the private InvIT National Highway Infrastructure Trust (NHIT) through which four rounds of monetisation have been completed.