Monetising existing assets key to NHAI funds for road development
Mumbai: With barely a week to go for the Union Budget, experts are debating whether the budgetary allocation to the roads sector would increase at all.
On one hand, there is the ambitious plan to augment the country’s road network under Bharatmala Yojana, which forms a part of the election manifesto. But on the other, the increase in borrowings of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) can act as a constraint.
According to rating agency Icra Ltd, the NHAI’s debt rose from about ₹25,000 crore in FY15 to an estimated ₹1.7 trillion in FY19.
