India's first cross-sector investment trust in works to monetise assets

Building on the success of highway monetisation, the central government is likely to set up India’s first infrastructure investment trust (Invit) encompassing assets from across infrastructure sectors, according to multiple officials familiar with the matter. 

The proposal, part of deliberations on the second edition of the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP 2.0) led by the NITI Aayog, would mark a shift from the Centre’s earlier strategy of launching sector- or ministry-specific Invits under the first NMP (2022-25). 

The creation of a multi-sector trust was discussed at a meeting of the Core Group of Secretaries on Asset Monetisation (CGAM), chaired by Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan, and is expected to enable the government to plough back capital from a wider pool of assets beyond highways, officials said. 

The move comes as the NITI Aayog, the government’s policy think tank, looks to bring state governments on board for NMP 2.0. Several ministries and states may otherwise have needed to launch their own Invits to monetise assets. An Invit allows individual investors to earn returns from infrastructure assets by holding units in a trust rather than owning the business outright or investing in specific companies. 

Officials said the government’s rationale, echoed by the cabinet secretary at the meeting, is that new Invits should serve a clear public purpose. A general-purpose Invit, they said, could allow participation by both central and state government departments. 

Queries sent to the NITI Aayog remained unanswered at the time of publication.

 

At present, only three Invits are spearheaded by the public sector: The National Highways Infra Trust (NHIT) and the Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust (RIIT), both backed by NHAI, and the PowerGrid Infrastructure Investment Trust (PGInvIT), sponsored by PowerGrid Corporation of India, each with a sector-specific mandate.

 

Of the more than 25 registered InvITs in India, none operates a diversified portfolio spanning multiple sectors such as power and energy, roads, ports and shipping, experts noted.

 

A single, large InvIT could also ease the path for state governments that have been exploring their own trusts but would otherwise face lengthy incorporation processes and the challenge of attracting anchor investors, said a person aware of the discussions. State governments, their asset-owning authorities, and public sector enterprises could instead become unitholders in the proposed trust, the person added. 

“A multi-sector InvIT will have a lower risk weighting as risk would be spread across multiple sectors and therefore can get the benefit of lower cost of funds, which in turn can lead to benefit to the asset monetisation initiatives of the government. Further, the asset pool available for acquisition would also be larger and therefore such an InvIT can achieve decent scale in a short period, provided the aspects related to acquisition price of the assets are taken care of,” said Kushal Kumar Singh, partner at Deloitte India.

 

However, the plan, currently unfamiliar for investors, is fraught with challenges too. “It’s important to plan in detail regarding the required sectoral expertise and means to harness operational/financial efficiencies to run such an Invit,” said Singh.

 

With multiple governments (states), the trust, and the investment managers expected to work in tandem, it will require all of them to work in close coordination, he added.

 

“While it has been legally allowed, risk-aversion and the novelty of the instrument have meant that Invits are currently sector-specific. With the cash flows that are currently there, intermingling of sectors within the same trust will only grow going forward. There is an appetite for it. There may be challenges like evaluation of risk profile and balancing out disparate revenue models,” said Kuljit Singh, partner and infrastructure leader at EY India.

 

The NMP 2.0 will be the guiding document for ministries to bring private operators into operational infrastructure projects and generate revenue. “Building on the success of the first Asset Monetisation Plan announced in 2021, the second Plan for 2025-30 will be launched to plough back capital of ₹10 trillion in new projects. Regulatory and fiscal measures will be fine-tuned to support the plan,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in her Budget speech in February 2025. 

Invit spearheads

• National Highways Infra Trust: Monetised 2,345 km of national highway assets; raised ₹43,638 crore as of FY25.
• Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust: Acquired five national highways from NHAI for ₹9,500 crore (announced Feb 9)
• PowerGrid InvIT: Operates multiple transmission assets; reported enterprise value of ₹8,857 crore (September 2025)