NEW DELHI: The government may look to add three highway stretches from Gujarat to the asset monetisation pipeline after they were handed back to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) after the end of the 15-year concession period.
The Centre’s target to mop up Rs 45,000 crore from monetisation of highway projects is expected to get a boost during the next financial year as the roads are high toll earners, sources told TOI.
The three projects in Gujarat, with a cumulative length of 377 km, can be monetized to generate Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore, the sources estimated.
The current toll revenue of these six-laned highway projects – Vadodara-Baruch, Baruch-Surat and Surat-Dahisar - is around Rs 1,700 crore.
The NHAI has been monetizing projects for 20 years to get upfront payment from successful bidders.
These were among the first few projects which were bid out by the NHAI under the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT-Toll) model of Public Private Partnership (PPP).
The first stretch had gone to Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and it had made upfront one-time premium payment of around Rs 475 crore and the other two projects were bagged by the IRB – one with premium payment and another on revenue-sharing model.
“We have amicably completed the process of getting back the projects with no claims or counterclaims. This is also a successful example of how BOT-Toll projects can be managed well, protecting interests of the government agency and the private players. These are completed operational projects and the tolling has stabilized over years,” said an official.
He added this is also the first case where an entire corridor will be back to NHAI at the end of the stipulated concession (contract) period after settling all issues amicably.
The budget document for the road transport and highways ministry shows that the NHAI will monetize completed projects to generate Rs 20,000 during 2022-23.
The provision has been made for raising another Rs 25,000 crore through innovative financing such as InvITs and securitisation of the future toll as it has been done for Delhi-Mumbai expressway project.
Officials said more than 90% of the highway projects under the NHAI are financially viable and hence these projects can generate enough revenue to recover the investment.
“As such all developed NHs under NHAI are monetized in some way or the other as the government can either get the revenue from toll every year or by bidding these projects to get upfront revenue for 15-years,” said one of them.
