Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will launch national monetisation for potential brownfield infrastructure assets.

Sitharaman announced this while presenting 2021-22 Budget in Parliament.

"National monetisation pipeline for potential brownfield infrastructure assets will be launched," Sitharaman said.

Last month Road Transport, Highways and MSMEs Minister Gadkari has said that National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to raise Rs 1 lakh crore through monetisation of highways under the toll-operate-transfer (TOT) mode in the next five years.

"NHAI intends to raise Rs 1 lakh crore through the TOT plan of asset monetisation in the next five years. We are getting excellent response and have got a lot of new models and pension funds besides investors from abroad," Gadkari had said.

NHAI is authorised to monetise public-funded national highway projects, which are operational and are collecting toll for at least one year after commercial operation, through the TOT model on a case-to-case basis.