National Highway Authority of India eyes fair deals in monetisation

NEW DELHI:  Though the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to monetise at least 5,000-6,000 km of roads every year for the next four years under the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP), it is not ready to set a target for itself as yet so that it becomes desperate to give away public asset to the private sector.

“I am looking for a reasonable deal, where the commuter is not inconvenienced and the standard of the road is also maintained properly. We need to strike the balance between the two,” says Giridhar Aramane, Secretary & Chairman, NHAI, in an interaction with The New Indian Express. By reasonable deal, Aramane means that the toll rate should not be excessively high, there should not be any delay at the toll and the ride quality must also be superior.

“The experience of the commuter must be pleasant and he must have a smooth ride. He must be able to travel at an optimum speed of 80-100 kmph on a national highway, and he must be provided with certain basic facilities like restaurants, resting places, toilets, petrol pump, recharging for EVs, etc,” he says.

According to Aramane, NHAI or any other concessioner gets around Rs 60-80 lakh by tolling each km of a 4-lane road. Under the NMP, the central government plans to raise Rs 6 lakh crore by monetising public assets like roads and ports. The government has set a target of realising Rs 1.6 lakh crore by monetising close to 27,000 km roads in next four years.

The monetisation in the road sector will be through toll-operate-transfer (ToT) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvIT) models. The NHAI has already been monetising some of its road assets through the ToT since 2016. Aramane says the NHAI has already collected Rs 17,000 crore through ToT model.

“Under NMP, we will do smaller bundles — 150-200 km bundles — so that there will be more players, bids will be more competitive and realization for the government will be reasonable,” he says. On its first InvIT, aimed at raising Rs 5,100 cr from five toll roads, Aramane said the NHAI has filed the documents with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and by mid-October, the InvIT would be up for subscription.