Over 800 km of highway stretches bid out – Infrastructure News

In its first attempt at monetisation through Toll Operate Transfer (ToT) mode this financial year, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has invited bids for three bundles of highways at one go as against two bundles in earlier rounds .

The investor response to earlier rounds of monetisation through ToT has led to NHAI planning to put three bundles of highways on block every quarter.

The highway builder has invited bids for monetising 801.7 km of national highways through Toll Operate Transfer (ToT) mode in the first round.

The highways have been grouped together in three bundles and are in states of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. In ToT bundle 17 Kanpur-Lucknow-Ayodhya section and Ayodhya-Gorakhpur section of highways in Uttar Pradesh totalling 333.4 km are on offer.

In Bundle 18 Chandikhol-Bhadrak and Panikholi – Rimuli sections on two highways in Odisha of total length of 283.8 km are on offer. In Bundle 19 Trichy – Thanjavur and Madurai – Tuticorin sections of highways of total length of 184.5 km in Tamil Nadu are open for bidding.

Last year for bundles 11, 12, 13 and 14 bids had come from the likes of KKR-backed Highways Infrastructure Trust, Cube Highways, IRB Infrastructure Trust, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority-backed funds, National Investment and Infrastructure Trust (NIIF) and Adani Group. Around Rs 15,968 was raised through transfer of these bundles to outside investors.

Under ToT the investors get the right to collect toll on highways for 20 years after making an upfront payment to NHAI, the owner. According to analysts on an average the realisation from monetisation of every kilometre of highway is around Rs 22 crore. The amount, however, varies wildly depending on the traffic density and the user base- whether it is used more by personal vehicles or commercial vehicles.

Bidding process for Bundle 15 and Bundle 16 is in progress. These bundles have three highway stretches 375 km long in the states of Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

The aggression on ToT comes as NHAI chases the Rs 54.000 crore target for monetisation this financial year, which is much higher than Rs 40,227 achieved last year. Of the FY 25 target, Rs 8,000 will come from project based financing and Rs 46,000 crore from ToT and Infrastructure Investment Trust. National Highways Infrastructure Trust (NHIT) has already said that its share will be Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 crore in this year’s monetisation plan.

The highway builder has identified 33 highway stretches of 2741 km that will be offered in the monetisation drive.