Govt to launch first retail investments in NHs under Invit in February

Plans to add 1,500 kilometres of national highways to Public InvIT over next 3-5 years

The government will come up with the issuance of national highway units for retail investors under its first public infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) in February and plans to add around 1,500 kilometres of highways, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said.

 

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is in the process of establishing Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust (RIIT) as a Public InvIT. As part of this initiative, NHAI has incorporated Raajmarg Infra Investment Managers Private Limited (RIIMPL) as the investment manager for the proposed InvIT, the ministry said on Thursday.

 

NHAI, through its existing InvIT — National Highways Infra Trust — has already raised over ₹43,000 crore so far. However, the trust currently only allows participation from institutional investors and the government has been firming up plans to allow retail investors into units of national highways.

 

InvITs are one of the three primary modes of highway monetisation used by the NHAI, under which a trust handles several road assets and investors can benefit from toll revenues on these roads by becoming unitholders.

 

As a department, NHAI has contributed significantly to the first National Monetisation Pipeline. It has achieved 71 per cent of NITI Aayog’s NMP Road Sector Pipeline from 2021–22 to 2024–25, with ₹1.15 trillion achieved out of a target of ₹1.6 trillion.

 

RIIMPL is a collaborative venture with equity participation from leading banks and financial institutions including State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, NaBFID, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv Ventures Ltd, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, IndusInd Bank and Yes Bank. This partnership aims to unlock the monetisation potential of the national highway assets, the ministry said.

 

NRVVMK Rajendra Kumar, member (finance), NHAI, has been appointed as the managing director and CEO (additional charge) of the investment manager company. NHAI Chairperson Santosh Kumar Yadav said the authority has established a robust record in asset monetisation.

 

“In recent years, we have successfully monetised assets worth ₹48,995 crore through the toll-operate-transfer (TOT) model and raised around ₹43,638 crore across four rounds of private InvITs, attracting major domestic and international investors. Over 3–5 years, 1,500 km of completed and operational national highways will be introduced into the Public InvIT, opening investment avenues for the public,” he said.