Things couldn’t get better for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Not only has it been able to meet the government’s road project awards target for this fiscal, but has also managed a bounty from the developers.
In the rounds of bidding held on Friday and earlier this week, private concessionaires have offered it a premium —- also called negative grant —- of around Rs650 crore a year for bagging seven highway projects.
That translates into Rs6,000 crore earnings over the entire concession period for the seven projects, which span 1,100 km and will require a total investment of Rs10,934 crore from the developers.
With this, the total number of projects awarded on a premium basis this fiscal has risen to 32, with total annual premium of around Rs3,000 crore. The net present value (premium revenue - inflation adjustments) of the 32 projects is around Rs30,000 crore over the concession period.
The additional revenue will help meet a part of NHAI’s onerous debt requirement of Rs192,000 crore till 2030.
Among the seven projects awarded this week, Larsen and Toubro bagged two. The other winners are KMC consortium, Sadbhav Enginnering, IVRCL Assets & Holdings, Unity Infra Projects and Transstroy consortium.
With this, the government has achieved its road award target for the financial year.
“A total of 58 projects spanning 7,400 km have been awarded. Also, in case of eight projects, the government has received the bids and is in the process of evaluating it,” said a senior NHAI official.
For the record, more than half of the projects awarded this fiscal have been bid on premium basis.
