The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has raised Rs 28,307 crore from monetisation this financial year with the last transaction of two road stretches through National Highways Infra Trust (NHIT) of Rs 6366 crore completed last week.
It was the fifth round of monetisation through NHIT and involved two highways of 311 km length, one each in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
To achieve the monetisation goal, NHAI did two rounds of monetisation through InvITs route and two rounds of monetisation through Toll Operate Transfer (ToT) mode. The proceeds were just short of the budget target of Rs 30,000 crore. In 2025-26 no funds came through asset backed securitisation as no more funding is required for Delhi Mumbai Expressway through this mode.
Second InviT issue
The second InviT issue was through NHAI’s recently launched Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust which brought in Rs 9.500 crore. Through the maiden issue of public InvIT funds were raised through a mix of equity and debt to acquire five operational national highway assets of Rs 260 km length in the states of Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
By monetising three road stretches of 333.5 km – Lucknow to Ayodhya, Ayodhya to Gorakhpur and Lucknow to Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh – NHAI raised Rs 9270 crore through ToT Bundle 17. Through ToT Bundle 18, which included the 74.5 km of Chandikhole Bhadrak Section of NH-16 in the state of Orissa, Rs 3087 crore was raised.
Both the ToT bundles went to IRB Infra. The NHAI is currently doing technical evaluation of bids for ToT Bundle 19 the transaction for which would be completed in the next financial year.
Second national monetisation pipeline
The second National Monetisation Pipeline that starts this financial year has an overall target of Rs 16.32 lakh crore by 2029-30 of which the share of the highways sector is 26% or Rs 4.42 lakh crore. The funding by the private sector in Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects has been made part of the target.
The NHAI has prepared its asset monetisation strategy document for the next three years. In the next financial year too the budget has kept the target of Rs 30,000 crore from monetisation of highways.
