National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has reduced the number of highway projects that it would monetise through National Highway Infra Trust (NHIT) to two from nine identified earlier as it is also getting ready to launch a public infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) by February.
In June nine highway projects with a total length of around 550 km were identified by NHAI for potential acquisition by NHIT. Now the list has been reduced to two highway stretches with a total length of 311 km,
The stretches are in states of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Total length of the Amravati-Chikhali-Tarsod Section in Maharashtra is 256.7 km and 6 lane Gundugolanu-Chinna Avutapalli-Vijayawada in AP is 54.38 Km. The board and managers of NHIT will now take a call on the asset on offer. These two highway stretches have the monetisation potential of around Rs 6,500 crore.
Shift to RIIT
The rest of the highway stretches on the original list of June could be offered to the public InvIT of NHAI – Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust (RIIT) – that got approval of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) last month. It will be the first round of acquisition by RIIT and is expected to hit the market by January-end or February. The plans are to raise around Rs 7000 crore to Rs 8000 crore through RIIT.
Through the public InvIT NHAI is planning to monetise 1500 km of highways in next three to five years. The public InvIT will be open to retail investors for investments on the equity side. NHIT has raised funds from the public only once in the past, that too as debt in 2022. Through NHIT the NHAI has so far raised Rs 43,638 crore by monetising 2,345 km of road assets in four rounds. This will be the fifth round of InvIT.
Monetisation Roadmap
This financial year the NHAI is aiming to raise around Rs 40,000 crore from monetisation through functional road assets. So far it has raised Rs 12,357 crore from two rounds of monetisation through Toll Operate Transfer (ToT) mode. The bids for ToT bundles 19,20,21 and 22 are still open and will be concluded in this financial year itself.
For 2025-26 the NHAI has identified 24 road assets with a total length of 1472 km for monetisation through ToT and InvIT. Around Rs 30,000 crore will come from ToT and InvIT the remaining will be raised through asset backed securitisation. In 2024-25 the highway builder raised Rs 28,724 crore through monetisation.