The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), the infrastructure funding arm of the Kerala government, has disbursed Rs 390 crore as the first instalment of a Rs 5,200-crore grant to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to part finance the four/six-laning of some 565 km of national highways in the state.
This model could also be used by NHAI with other state governments to part-fund the massive highway development programme, to lighten its burden amidst a squeeze in bank funding for infrastructure projects, sources said.
India’s national highway development agency estimates a funding requirement of Rs 48,000 crore to convert 500 km of two-lane highways into four-lanes, close to half of which would be used to acquire land.
