Govt to invite bids from foreign funds for asset recycling

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will invite bids from foreign pension funds for recycling of brownfield projects to raise funds, a senior official said today.
"The Cabinet has approved the proposal last month. There is a need for model concessional agreement after which the Request For Proposal (RFP) will be finalised," Joint Secretary with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Rohit Kumar Singh said on the sidelines of a BCCI seminar here today.
Once the RFP was ready, bids would be invited, he said adding "We are expecting to invite bids in the next two or three months."

The process involves handing over of 75-odd brownfield road projects across the country to these foreign funds for a concession period of 30 years, he he told reporters.
During this period, the foreign funds would collect toll as per law and maintain them while ownership would not be transferred.
"The ownership will remain with the government," he said.

Singh said in this way, the government was expected to garner Rs 50,000 crore which would be given upfront by the fund managers and would be then ploughed back in creating other new road assets.
"This mechanism of called asset recycling which is quite popular in other countries like Australia," he said adding that these kind of financing, spread over a long period of 30 years, is provided by pension fund managers from Saudi, Qatar, UAE and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority among others.

"We are expecting pension funds managers from Canada, Singapore and US to respond to the offer," he said.
The Ministry had already availed of Rs 10,000 crore from the EPFO as well, Singh added.