Infra assets worth over Rs 1.62 trn to be monetised this fiscal: FinMin

Infrastructure assets worth over Rs 1.62 lakh crore are expected to be monetised during the current fiscal, Parliament was informed on Monday.

The government had last year announced a Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors, ranging from power to road and railways in four years till 2025.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said about Rs 97,000 crore worth of public assets were monetised in the last fiscal (2021-22).

The key transactions include highway toll-operate-transfer (TOT) based PPP concessions, NHAI's Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT), PowerGrid InvIT, annual accruals from mineral and coal blocks auctioned in FY21-22, private investment in the redevelopment of railway colonies, receipts from 6 airports leased on PPP mode and private investment from port terminals bid out on PPP mode.

"Indicative value of assets envisaged to be monetised under NMP during FY22-23 is Rs 1,62,422 crore," he said.

Chaudhary said the various transactions proposed to be undertaken during FY22-23 include highway TOT bundles and InvIT future rounds, redevelopment of sports stadia, operational power generation & transmission assets, lease of airports through PPP, PPP projects at various port trusts, development of silos and warehouses, monetisation of tower assets and mining assets.

The indicative value refers to the value expected to be realised by the asset owners through the monetisation process, either in form of accruals or by way of private sector investment.

The sectors identified under the NMP include roads, ports, airports, railways, warehousing, gas & product pipelines, power generation and transmission, mining, telecom, stadium and urban real estate.