The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will raise Rs 9500 crore through monetisation of five functional highways through the first round of asset acquisition by its public Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT), Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust (RIIT).
As RIIT is a public InvIT, it will be raising funds to the tune of Rs 600-700 crore from the retail investors as equity for asset acquisition. The Initial Public Offer of the RIIT is expected to hit the market later this month with retail share at 10% of the total equity units.
Retail investors can apply for the units with a minimum investment of Rs 10,000 going up to Rs 2 lakh.
How will funds be raised?
The funds for acquisition will be raised through a mix of debt and equity. While equity would account for 60% of funds, the rest 40% will come through loans from banks. NHAI as a sponsor of RIIT will hold 15% of the units, 30% will be from anchor investors and the rest mostly from domestic financial institutions, officials said.
“Through this Public InvIT, retail investors will not only gain the opportunity to earn stable and attractive returns from operational National Highway assets but will also develop a sense of ownership and pride in contributing to the growth of national infrastructure,” Chairman of NHAI Santosh Kumar Yadav said in a statement.
RIIT to acquire 5 sections spanning over 260 km across four states
RIIT will acquire five sections spanning over 260 km across four states in its maiden issue. The monetized assets include 80.52 km long Gorhar–Barwa Adda section in Jharkhand, 69.4 km long Chilakaluripet–Vijayawada section in Andhra Pradesh, 32.6 km long Chennai Bypass, 33 km long Chennai–Tada section in Tamil Nadu and 44.6 km long Neelmangla– Tumkur section in Karnataka.
Over the next 3 to 5 years, NHAI plans to provide further assets of about 1,500 km to RIIT. Apart from public InvIT, the NHAI is expected to raise another significant sum this year through monetisation of two highway stretches of 311 km through its private InvIT, National Highways Infra Trust (NHIT).
Proceeds of monetisation of highways through infrastructure investment trust are exclusively used for debt repayment and this year also the NHAI is planning to aggressively bring down its outstanding debt.
So far NHAI 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 could 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.