High concentration of tolls on a single road stretch could create concerns for 4th TOT bundle: ICRA

High concentration of tolls on a single highway stretch with a history of agitations could create concerns for the fourth round of projects to be monetised under the toll operate transfer (TOT) mode, ratings agency ICRA said on Thursday.

The fourth bundle under TOT has seven stretches totalling around 401 km spread across five states.

In terms of revenue (toll collection) concentration, single stretch (Pimpalgaon-Nashik-Gonde, or PNG) accounts for around 35 per cent of total collections of the bundle while the top two of the seven stretches account for around 55 per cent, ICRA said in a statement.

"PNG could be Achille's heel for fourth TOT bundle given PNG's chequered history of political agitations disrupting toll collections which consequently resulted in termination of concession agreement by earlier BOT concessionaire," it said.

Rajeshwar Burla, VP and Associate Head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA said that the two recent TOT bundles if successful would not only help NHAI raise around Rs 9,000 crore but also invigorate it to speed up asset monetisation process especially after cancellation of the second bundle bidding on account of lower-than-anticipated response from bidders.

"As far as success of fourth bundle is concerned, a lot would depend on how investors view PNG," he said.

It said the fourth bundle is similar to third bundle in terms of toll collection potential and asset concentration.