Reliance Infrastructure seeks FIPB nod to raise money abroad

Reliance Infrastructure, which is implementing eleven road projects worth around Rs 12,000 crore, has approached the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) seeking permission for raising overseas funds for investment in the road sector.
The proposal, according to the FIPB, is for design, finance, construction and maintenance related work.

Company officials neither confirmed nor denied the development.
After bagging the Rs 2,960 crore Delhi-Agra project spanning 180 km from the National Highways Authority of India last month, the company emerged as the largest developer of six-laning highway projects in the country. The company plans to more than double its road portfolio to over Rs 25,000 crore by 2012-13.

The eleven road projects currently in Reliance Infrastructure’s portfolio comprise a total length of 970 km having an investment outlay of over Rs 11,900 crore.

The company’s two projects in Tamil Nadu, Namakkal-Karur and Dindigul-Samynalore Toll, worth Rs 760 crore, are now commercially operational.

The company hopes to achieve financial closure in case of the Delhi-Agra project within the next six months. The project will be executed on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (Toll) basis with a concession period of 26 years, including the construction period.

The project connecting Delhi and Agra via Faridabad and Mathura is significant from both freight as well as tourism point of view. The company bagged the project through an auction where two bidders had participated based on least viability gap funding amount of Rs 180 crore.