Govt to raise fund for road projects through InvIT

New Delhi: The government is pitching to raise funds from the capital market for the upcoming road projects. Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said the government would approach the capital market next month to raise funds for four road projects. "The money will be raised through Infrastructure Invest-ment Trusts (InvITs), and there will be an investment limit of Rs 10 lakh for retail investors," he said at a Ficci event.

InvITs are like mutual funds, designed to pool money from investors and invest in assets that will provide cash flows over a period of time and the minister said there will be an assured return of 7-8 per cent to the investors.

Gadkari further said the road ministry will also be opening up projects under the build operate transfer (BOT) model once again. The minister also said he has set a target to take the national highway network length to 2 lakh km by 2024. "The total length of national highways in the country has increased from about 91,287 km in April 2014 to about 1,40,937 km at the end of November 2021," he added.

India has the second highest road network and this is the time to expand road network and take it to two lakh kilometres by the end of 2024. Currently, 90 per cent of passenger and 80 per cent goods traffic are catered by roads.