Govt plans to construct over 50,000-km Roads via InvITs

Terming InvIT as an attractive vehicle for mobilizing funds for road infrastructure, the Union transport ministry has decided to build over 50,000 km of highways. Secretary - Road Transport and Highways, Giridhar Aramane informed that the majority of these roads will be 4 and 6 lanes wide. He called upon the investors to consider that InvIT has scope for broad basing the investor groups. The proposed roads have a history of tolling and thus the price discovery is likely to be handsome. He assured that efforts will be made to facilitate the realization of value for investment. The functioning of the investment manager will be democratized by bringing investing partners into the board of directors to manage the company in a professional manner. The project managers will also be selected on professional and efficiency basis. InvITs are instruments on the pattern of mutual funds and are designed to pool small sums of money from a number of investors to invest in assets that give cash flow over a period of time. The Union Cabinet has approved setting up of InvIT, which will enable NHAI under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to monetize completed national highways that have a toll collection track record of at least one year and NHAI reserves the right to levy a toll on the identified highway.