Former secretary at the ministry of highways Vijay Chibber says he is not unduly concerned about the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI’s) financial condition, which many analysts believe is precarious. NHAI’s borrowings are all part of a planned programme, Chibber tells Surya Sarathi Ray.
Do you subscribe to the view that NHAI should stop highways construction and concentrate on road asset management?
NHAI is a government agency created only for the purpose of aggressively rolling out massive highway construction programme of the country. As far as asset management is concerned, it is already into it. Managing assets is a very delicate task. The suggestion on monetising of the assets is welcome. This is the only part of the suggestion that had been sent to the PMO which actually merits focus and consideration. The ministry and the NHAI are slow in monetising assets. In 2014-15, when we decided to ramp up much larger portfolio of road asset, the financial plan very clearly included some revenues coming out of monetisation.
