NHAI plans to seek new investor for Mumbai-Pune Expressway
MUMBAI: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to find a new operator for the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, one of the country’s busiest, with the agreement with IRB Infrastructure Developers set to end in August. NHAI expects the new deal will value the expressway at $1-1.2 billion (Rs 7,000-8,000 crore), said two people close to the development.
SBI Capital Markets has been mandated to find a buyer for the asset and feelers have been sent to global and domestic infrastructure developers such as Macquarie, Cube Highways and National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF). All have significant exposure in the toll roads segment.
The Mumbai-Pune Expressway project — which is being operated on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model — contributed the highest revenue of Rs 918 crore in FY19 to the state-run authority, followed by the Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway at Rs 429 crore. NHAI’s revenue stood at Rs 6,903 crore in FY19.
