The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has accepted a Rs 6220 crore offer from National Highways Infrastructure Trust (NHIT) for acquiring two highway stretches. It will be the fifth round of acquisition of assets by NHIT.

Following the acceptance of the offer, the board NHAI will start fund raising through a mix of debt and equity. It will issue fresh units to the sponsor NHAI, anchor investors and other institutions. The debt is likely to be raised from banks. The deal would be finalised by March, when up on payment of Rs 6220 crore or more the NHIT will get the right to collect toll on these stretches for 20 years.

The two highways that will be acquired by NHIT in the latest round are in states of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and stretch over 311 km. 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.

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, which will bring in another Rs 6220 crore.

Sponsor NHAI has a holding of 11.07% in NHAI and the other big unitholders are Canadian funds – CPP Investment Board and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board through Ontario Ltd with a stake of 19.95% each.

Rest of the units holders include mutual funds, pension funds and Nitro Asia Holdings, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) incorporated in Singapore that acquired 12% of units in NHIT through open market in December last year for Rs 2905 crore. The sellers were the two Canadian funds, who brought down their stakes from 25%.

Along with NHIT, the first issue of NHAI’s public InvIT Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust (RIIT) will bring in another Rs 9,500 crore through monetisation of five highway stretches of 260 km length. This will take total funds raised through InvITs this year to Rs 15,700 crore.

For monetisation through RIIT, the funds would also be raised from the public through sale of units. Around `600–700 crore from retail investors as equity for asset acquisition. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of RIIT is expected to hit the market later this month, with retail participation accounting for 10% of the total equity units.

Proceeds from the monetisation of highways through InvITs are used exclusively for debt repayment. This year, NHAI also plans to aggressively reduce its outstanding debt.

So far this financial year, NHAI has raised Rs 12,357 crore from two rounds of monetisation through the Toll Operate Transfer (ToT) mode. Bids for ToT bundles 19, 20, 21, and 22 remain open and could be finalised within this financial year.

For 2025–26, NHAI has identified 24 road assets with a total length of 1,472 km for monetisation through ToT and InvIT. Around Rs 30,000 crore is expected to be raised via ToT and InvIT, while the remainder will come from asset-backed securitisation. In 2024–25, the highway builder raised Rs 28,724 crore through monetisation.