As of March 31, 2022, the total outstanding debt of the state-owned National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) stood at around Rs 3.49 lakh crore, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said the fund required by NHAI for debt servicing in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 will be Rs 31,282 crore, Rs 31,909 crore and Rs 30,552 crore, respectively.

He said the monetisation plan of operational highway stretches which has the largest share of Rs 1.6 lakh crore of the total asset monetisation plan of Rs 6 lakh crore over a period of 4 years, i.e. FY22 to FY25, as per the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) announced recently by the Centre includes 26,700 km of highways of four lanes.

NHAI has monetised 26 stretches under toll-operate-transfer (TOT) and InvIT modes of monetisation, to date. According to the minister, the total budgetary outlay of the road ministry under BE 2022-23 is Rs 1,99,107.71 crore. "In addition, NHAI envisages raising of Rs 15,000 crore from SPV and Rs 30,000 crore is investment envisaged from private sector participation," he said.

Replying to a separate question, Gadkari said Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh have confirmed that they are following the provision of the Motor Vehicle Act and the notification issued thereunder to ensure the appropriate electronic enforcement devices on National Highways at high risk and high-density corridors. "Remaining states/UTs have not yet confirmed," he added.

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