With increasing capital burden, the central government is mulling to expedite identified infrastructure works under the Bharatmala programme for sooner monetisation. As per Economic Time’s report, the National Highway Authority of India is compiling information about monetisation capacity of infrastructure works.
The projects with high expected revenue due to traffic density and demand will be pushed for early completion for utilisation and an aim to “recycle assets faster”, as per the report. The move would help bridge monetary requirements for the earmarked projects, it said.
The generated funds can be put into building more roads. The government will resort to a combination of toll securitisation and toll-operate-transfer (TOT) to make debt sustainable, as per policy.
The yet-to-be finalised strategy would soon be brought out in a policy, under which high-density stretches would be identified and prioritised.
Bharatmala is the biggest infra project of the government with construction of a 60,000 km stretch of cross-country highways at an estimated cost of Rs 5.35 lakh crore in its first phase. Land acquisition related issues may, however, inflate the cost to Rs 10 lakh crore.
