Process for the IPO is on, but will need approval from the Ministry of Finance, says Nitin Gadkari
The Union road ministry is planning to list National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and is awaiting a nod from the Union finance ministry.
"Process for the IPO is on, but will need approval from the Ministry of Finance," Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari said without giving any details.
Earlier at the convention of Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, Gadkari took a dig at banks saying there was no dearth of funds to execute road and highway projects.
"Till now we haven't come out with NHAI's IPO. The day I list NHAI in stock exchanges, I will get Rs 10 lakh crore," he said.
Gadkari said there are projects for which it has taken 14-16 months to achieve financial closure.
"As this was not happening, we went for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model. It will be better if I do Rs 44 crore worth of projects in EPC. If this continues, will do another about Rs 3 lakh crore under EPC. Why should I wait for a year only for financial closure?," said Gadkari.
However, the EPC model is temporary as the government wants to bring back public-private-partnership (PPP) or build-operate-transfer (BOT) financial models, he said.
MoRTH and NHAI have already awarded projects worth of over Rs 5.6 lakh crore while another Rs 3 lakh crore of works are in the pipeline, he said.
Coming down on the banks for reluctance in financing infrastructure projects, Gadkari said he will utilise public money for infrastructure projects. Senior citizens and pensioners can be given 0.5% more interest if they invest; usually, the returns is 7% and even lesser if they invest in banks.
In 2014, around 403 toll projects worth Rs 3.85 lakh crore were stalled and there was a risk of projects turning into non-performing assets. The government also terminated projects around 55-60 projects that were stuck due to various reasons, only to revive them later.
"I have managed to save banks from these stressed projects," said Gadkari. Therefore, he wants banks to finance road projects as it has lesser risks.
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