Govt plans highway projects worth ₹50,000-cr for FY22

The Central government has lined up business avenues worth ₹50,000 crore in the country's road and highway construction sector for the new fiscal. A host of offerings are lined up, including build, operate and transfer, BoT (toll), toll operate and transfer (ToT) and securitization. NHAI will bid out projects worth ₹30,000 crore on the BoT (Toll) model and hybrid annuity model in 2021-22. The government will also continue to award road projects on EPC contract. The number of projects will be higher than in the last couple of years. The exact number of projects and the model on which the bids will be called for each of them will be decided shortly. The Union transport ministry has also lined up ₹18,000 crore worth ToT, and toll securitization and Infrastructure Investment Trust (Invit) as all three are various models of asset monetization. According to Akshay Purkayastha, director, Crisil Infrastructure Advisory, the government seems to be testing the appetite of the private sector for BoT Toll projects and it is a good strategy to offer limited bids than going for a large number of projects at one go as far as BoT (Toll) is concerned. In fact, highway funding models have been lopsided towards EPC for the last couple of years as the private sector has not been willing to take traffic and funding risks associated with the BoT (Toll) model.