In addition to the current private infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to establish a public InvIT soon in order to expand the total number of investors, foster competition in the InvIT market, reduce the risk associated with a small investor base, and provide access to infrastructure assets for retail investors.
Retail investors can now invest in infrastructure projects because public InvITs have a minimum subscription value between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 and a trading lot of one unit since July 2021, as opposed to Rs 100,000 and 100 units, respectively. The trading lot for private InvITs is 25,000 units, and the minimum subscription amount is Rs 250 million.
A preliminary list of 24 road assets that would be monetised in 2025-26 has been identified by the NHAI. A total of 1,472 km of road assets would be monetised, with an estimated Rs 18.63 billion in revenue from these assets overall in 2023-2024.
In order to increase private involvement, it will also provide a variety of bundle sizes, boost risk-reward mechanisms for concessionaires, and maintain an asset register.
NHAI would conduct one or two InvIT stages annually to serve a wide range of investors and offer three toll-operate-transfer (ToT) bundles every quarter: one small (Rs 20 billion), one medium (Rs 50 billion), and one large (Rs 90 billion) bundle.
A list of highway assets that will be appealing to road infrastructure players and private investors wishing to take part in NHAI’s asset monetisation programme will be included in the asset register that NHAI will also create, which is administratively overseen by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
Besides, the asset register will include all technical and financial details needed to determine the monetisation potential of the asset.