The Union government will monetise assets worth Rs 6 lakh crore between this year and 2025 under the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) scheme. The target for the first fiscal is set at Rs 88,000 crore and that is set to double by the second fiscal. Giridhar Aramane, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Chairman at National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Additional Charge Secretary at Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), shared his outlook.

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“Raising resources for building more national highways is the purpose. So our monetisation will be proportional to the length of national highways that we are going to build,” he said.

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“We have the technical and financial reports for around 5,000 kilometres ready, but we will look at the market appetite to absorb this kind of monetisation and then we will decide. Depending on the investor appetite, we are ready to offer 5,000 kilometres of national highways,” he shared.

In terms of reserve price concept, he said, “Reserve price concept has been given a go-ahead because that will either set too low a level or it will be too high for the investors to agree to.”

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“We are in constant touch with state governments where we are taking up national highways or putting them for tolls. We obtain a no objection certificate from the state government before we do any such thing, so there is no question of not consulting state governments. The investors are well-protected in terms of the provisions of toll-operate-transfer (TOT) or Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) projects; there will be suitable compensation mechanism in case a competing road comes up nearby,” he explained.

“In the first tranche this year, we are going to have around 400 kilometres under InvIT and around 450-500 kilometres under TOT,” he said.

This year’s target for bidding out is around 11,000 kilometres to match last year’s achievement. “We want to exceed that and so far, around 2,500 kilometres are ready for award,” he noted.

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“So far, we have completed 3,100 kilometres for construction of national highways against last year’s achievement of 3,000 kilometres. It is much above last five years’ average,” he said.

In terms of arbitrations, he said, “Government does not want any litigations or arbitrations. Last year, we settled around Rs 45,000 crore of claims and this year, we are also aiming for a similar number and in a year or two, we will be clear of the past cases and any new case coming up, we are going to resolve as and when it arises. We have set up a Dispute Resolution Board, which can act in between the contract.”

For the full interview, watch the accompanying video.

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(Edited by : Dipika Ghosh)

First Published:Aug 26, 2021 2:13 PM IST