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NHAI seeks investors and fund houses

PIB. — Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari witnessing the signing ceremony of an MoU between the Ministry and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), in New Delhi on 8 July 2019. The Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, General (Retd.) V.K. Singh and other dignitarie also attended the singing of MoU.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) for cooperation in formation of SPVs to execute the fund arrangement for large size road projects particularly green field projects.

This arrangement of innovative alternate source of funding is being looked into by NHAI to attract international investors and fund houses who are willing to invest in road projects in India but not very keen to take risk related to the project execution.

This arrangement is expected to bring huge amount of investment at economical rate for highway development in India and reduce the stress of borrowing on NHAI balance sheet also, said the Road Transport and Highway Ministry.

Speaking on the occasion, Road Transport and Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari said NHAI is raising finances for its mega projects and is not dependent only upon budgetary support.

Several funding models were adopted in the past towards this, which have yielded good results.

He hailed the MoU and expressed hope that it will provide innovative financial models including for the 24,000-km Rs.7.5 lakh crore Bharatmala Pariyojana. fiinews.com

Tags: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways National Highway Authority of India National Investment and Infrastructure Fund