Government to compensate highway operators, investors for damage due to annual pass scheme. Bharat News
New Delhi: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will come with a compensation framework for private highway operators and investors, including foreign pension funds, which have better for the damage on the highway area after the rollout of “annual pass” for private vehicles on national highways and expressways.It is especially important that the highway sector has recorded the best results in the government’s milestone program and NHAI will be focused more for the purpose in the next five years.Sources in the Ministry of Road Transport said that a committee would work as a structure in the next one month after consulting the stakeholders.Players of Road Infrastructure Value Chain, including Cube Mobility and IRB Infrastructure and Adani Group, Sovereign Funds and Asset Manager like NIIF and companies such as companies and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board, have invested heavily in this sector.There are also many NH stretches where private highway builders are collecting tolls according to the ongoing contracts. “There are some apprehensions among a private investors, who have taken full projects under the mudification program about their loss, as they have paid the upfront based on the launch of traffic and toll revenue. But since we have to keep in mind the interests of all the stakeholders, especially users, we are clinging to the August 15,” a top NHAI officer said.NHAI has masked its projects through three models – toll operat transfer (TOT), Infrastructure Investment Trust (Invits) and Securitization.The official said that the work on the annual pass plan started months ago and all implications were worked on the basis of previous toll collection data. Data suggests that NHAI has achieved 71% of the mudification target in the highway sector, which has raised Rs 1.2 lakh crore target for Rs 1.6 lakh crore by FY2024-25.
