Road ministry drives Centre's asset monetisation with Rs 10,273 cr mop-up

The asset monetisation target for the road ministry is Rs 30,000 crore, and the ministry had already monetised assets worth Rs 17,000 crore when the NMP was launched

The Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways has managed to mop up over Rs 10,273 crore as part of the Centre’s National Asset Monetisation Pipeline. The monetisation by various ministries so far has been Rs 26,806 crore with another Rs 15,000-16,000 crore to be realised soon by the roads ministry, said an official.

The Centre had set a target of Rs 88,000 crore for the current financial year, out of its Rs six trillion pipeline for the four-year period.

The asset monetisation target for the roads ministry is Rs 30,000 crore, and the ministry had already monetised assets worth Rs 17,000 crore when the NMP was launched by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is in process of monetising three toll-operate-transfer bundles that may fetch about Rs 10,000 crore. It is also likely to get toll receivables of Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000 crore from Delhi-Mumbai expressway, an official said.

So far, the Ministry of Power has been able to monetise assets worth Rs 7,735 crore as against the monetisation target for power transmission of Rs 7,700 crore. The Ministry of Coal has been able to monetise Rs 4,611 crore through auctions against its target of Rs 3,394 crore. The monetisation of airports was pegged at Rs 5,720 crore for FY22, out of which assets worth Rs 1,337 crore have monetised thus far, the official said.

The Ministry of Railways has been able to monetise Rs 389 crore through redevelopment of Habibganj Railway Station, the official said. The ministry has a monetisation target for station redevelopment of Rs 17,000 crore, and a total monetisation target of Rs 17,810 crore for the ongoing fiscal. The Ministry of Shipping, Ports and Waterways have been able to mop up Rs 827 crore as against its target of Rs 1,383 crore. Warehousing assets of Rs 814 crore have been monetised so far out of the targeted Rs 5,780 crore for ongoing fiscal. Urban and Real estate assets worth Rs 820 crore have been monetised so far out of Rs 47,276 crore envisaged to be monetised over a four-year period.

Under the centre’s national monetisation pipeline, the top three sectors by value were roads, railways and power. The roads ministry has seen an impressive monetisation realisation in the current financial year if the 1,400 km stretch is also considered (which was done before announcing the NMP).  The railway ministry has seen monetisation at a sluggish pace racing far behind its target for ongoing fiscal. While monetisation from power transmission has been impressive at Rs 7,735 crore, monetisation of power generation assets has been lacklustre. The target of power generation has been pegged at Rs 2,770 crore for this financial year.

Although the receipts from monetisation of assets will not go into the union government’s kitty as these have been garnered by leasing out operational assets of public sector enterprises, the nudging by the Centre has proven to be successful considering the pipeline and targets was only announced in late August 2021.