IRB gets financial closure for Padra-Vadodara road project

IRB Infrastructure Developers Thursday said it has achieved financial closure for its third hybrid annuity model road project through its special purpose vehicle VK1 Expressway for its eight laning project from Padra to Vadodara.

The project concession will be for 15 years and the tolling and construction will be commenced from the appointed date.

It added that the project on Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway will be receiving the financial support of Rs 817 crore from NHAI and equity of Rs 245 crore from the company and project financing of Rs 981 crore from the lenders.

The company had bagged three projects under hybrid annuity model (HAM) in March 2018. Out of these three, the first two, Puducherry to Poondiyankuppam (38 kms) and Poondiyankuppam to Sattanathpuram (56.80 kms) have achieved financial closure at the bid project cost at the end of September 2018 on two consecutive days.

With the third financial closure achieved, IRB Infra has financially closed all its HAM projects, it said in a statement.

"To achieve financial closure for a project in the present scenario was a challenge for us. It's matter of pride for us that within a span of almost 20-21 days, we achieved financial closures for all three projects under hybrid annuity model," its chairman and managing director Virendra Mhaiskar said.

The company has a portfolio of 17 owned projects and seven projects under operations and maintenance contracts as a project manager for IRB InvIT.

Of the 17 owned projects, seven projects are under operational BOT (build operate transfer) space, three under HAM space, four projects under tolling and construction, another two projects under advanced stages of construction and one project under development stage.