The pandemic has significantly impacted the asset monetisation plans of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), as potential investors are finding it difficult to predict road traffic going forward.
This could have a bearing on the Centre’s Bharatmala initiative, which is expected to get delayed by 12 months, according to ratings agency Crisil. The government had mooted monetising road assets through infrastructure investment trusts (InvIT) and toll operate transfer (ToT) routes.
NHAI, the government’s nodal agency for roads, planned to raise close to ₹85,000 crore by monetising 6,000 km of operational toll roads. “We see this getting delayed by 24 months amidst Covid and the subsequent impact on all the stakeholders,” said Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, Director & Practice Leader – Transport & Logistics, Crisil Infrastructure Advisory.
