New Delhi: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is projected to garner Rs 35,000-40,000 crore in FY26 if the road assets identified by the authority are monetised in a timely manner, a report showed on Wednesday.
This is based on the median valuation multiple of 0.62 times seen across the 10 awarded toll-operate-transfer (TOT) bundles over the last three years. This would mark a healthy improvement from the Rs. 24,399 crore monetised in FY2025. Moreover, this would exceed the budgeted monetisation target of Rs. 30,000 crore for FY2026, according to the report by ratings agency ICRA.
“The NHAI has predominantly utilised two asset monetisation mechanisms, namely TOT and Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) since FY2019. The authority has successfully raised Rs 92,633 crore through these channels up to FY2025,” said Vinay Kumar G, Sector Head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA. The TOT method generated 53 per cent of NHAI’s total monetisation during FY2019-FY2025. InvIT, introduced in FY2022, has seen its share expand over the past two years.
Since FY2023, NHAI has begun publishing annual lists of assets designated for monetisation. “Between FY2023 and FY2025, approximately 7,000 km were announced for monetisation, of which about 2,000 km have been completed to date, and an additional 1,170 km have been offered for sale through five TOT bundles. Moreover, NHAI is yet to monetise nearly 3,750 km that were made available for sale during this period,” informed Kumar.
The NHAI has identified a robust pipeline of projects earmarked for monetisation, which includes the estimated completion of five TOT bundles with bids already initiated. Moreover, it has earmarked the transfer of project stretches to the InvIT established by the NHAI.
ICRA’s analysis suggests that the valuation multiple has varied between 0.46 and 0.93 times across the 10 awarded TOT bundles over the last three years, with the median multiple being 0.62 times. The average concession period has been 20 years, and the toll collection track record for the underlying assets has varied within 4-15 years (median of 10 years).
Based on this multiple, monetisation of existing identified assets, along with TOT bundles and assets identified in FY2026, could potentially garner monetisation proceeds of Rs. 35,000-40,000 crore in FY2026, taking its total monetisation since inception to around Rs. 1.3 lakh crore. "The National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) set a target of approximately Rs 53,366 crore with a total monetisable length of 8,894 km for FY2025, whereas the FY2025 Budget projected a lower figure of Rs. 30,000 crore,” said Kumar.
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