The NHAI will fund the 1,250-km Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project through a mix of debt and equity in the ratio of 9:1. “Expenditure other than land acquisition during construction period will be about Rs 53,849 crore, to be funded through Rs 48,464 crore debt and equity of about Rs 5,385 crore from NHAI, with debt equity ratio marked at 9:1,” the NHAI said in a statement on Tuesday.
The authority has already set up a fully-owned special purpose vehicle (SPV) DME Developers (DMEL) for executing the expressway project. The SPV has received AAA rating from Crisil, CARE and India Rating, the authority said.
“For the project, DMEL’s role will be limited to housing the debt and servicing thereof.
For the debt, NHAI is extending a Letter of Comfort to lenders. The concession agreement, implementation agreement and Letter of Comfort have been finalised,” it said. Annuity payments to DMEL will be structured to enable timely servicing of debt and other incidentals.
NHAI plans to form similar SPVs for other high value highway/expressway projects. This will further enhance NHAI capability to execute large scale infrastructure projects of national importance.
Through the SPVs, NHAI plans to diversify its resource base and develop a project specific sustainable and self-liquidating approach to raise finances. The project is being executed under 48 sub-projects, out of which 17 are HAM (Vadodara-Mumbai segment) and 31 are under EPC.
Of these 48 sub-projects, 27 are under construction, 17 are awarded & work to be started and the rest are under process for awarding.
The project is scheduled for completion by March 2023, with one of the stretches to JNPT getting completed by Sept 2023.