NHAI to award ₹2.25 lakh cr projects in FY22

The National Highways Authority of India is planning to award projects of approximately ₹2.25 lakh crore in the current fiscal. In the last fiscal, it had awarded 141 projects (4,788 km) worth ₹1.71 lakh crore.

NHAI has been given ₹57,350 crore in the Budget for 2021-22, up from ₹49,050 crore (RE) in 2020-21. It has also been permitted to borrow ₹65,000 crore in 2021-22, same as in 2020-21. NHAI could raise ₹10,000 crore through the monetisation of operational highway projects. It has already submitted required documents with the market regulator Sebi to raise at least ₹5,100 crore through its first InvIT. Also, a couple of tranches of the toll-operate-transfer (TOT) model would be tried. Fundraising through securitisation of toll would also be done.

Projects awarded in this fiscal could be around 5,000 km and HAM is expected to have the largest share of awards followed by EPC. BOT is likely to gain momentum to constitute between 5-10% of the award basket. Project awards through the BOT route drew a blank in both 2018-19 and 2019-20.