(FE)
The cumulative debt of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has mounted to Rs 1.78 lakh crore in FY19 from around Rs 40,000 crore in FY14. The borrowing is expected to go up to `3.31 lakh crore by FY23, as its needs resources to fund construction of around 25,000 km highway projects in six years under the Bharatmala programme starting from 2017-18.
NHAI’s equity capital, as per rating agency Icra, has gone up from around Rs 60,000 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 201,600 crore in FY19 and is expected to further increase to Rs 541,345 crore in 2022-23. Consequently, the authority’s debt-equity ratio is likely to decline to 0.61 from 0.74 currently. Apart from borrowings, the NHAI gets funds in the form of transfers from the Central Road and Infrastructure Fund (CRIF) and transfers of toll collection. For the current fiscal, as per the interim Budget, the NHAI is likely to get Rs 16,091 crore from the CRIF and another Rs 10,600 crore from toll plough back.
