NHAI to put existing highway projects under infrastructure investment trust

The government is finalising a list of functional national highway projects that would be placed under infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) to be offered to potential investors.

It is learnt that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) would prefer brown-field projects over greenfield contracts for InvIT. The reason being that the former is less risky, as opposed to the latter, because the construction work is complete and the traffic potential is easier to gauge as against the new projects, which are yet to begin construction.

“The projects that are being considered for the InvIT structure comprise nearly 80 per cent brownfield (or existing projects) and around 20 per cent greenfield (or new) alignments,” an official said, adding that completely new projects are at a higher risk due to long term traffic projections.