Top Canadian funds like Brookfield Asset Management, CDPQ and PSP Investments drawn to India’s highway projects
Top Canadian funds including Brookfield Asset Management, Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ) and PSP Investments have evinced interest in investing in India’s highway projects. Brookfield Asset Management and Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ) have had preliminary talks with state-run National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the roads ministry, NHAI chairman Raghav Chandra said. “We have had initial talks with Canadian funds. They have been coming to me on and off and have shown interest in the toll operate transfer investment model (TOT),” he said. PSP Investments and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan have also expressed interest in the projects, another official aware of the matter said. The government has identified some 100 operational highways owned by the NHAI for leasing to private players through the auction route for maintenance and toll collection for 30 years. The highway projects will be leased along with local operations and maintenance partners. The ministry expects about Rs 70,000 crore in upfront payment from this process and plans to use the funds to meet its target of laying 15,000 km of national highways in the current fiscal. “Brookfield is in constant touch with us and they have conveyed they are very much interested in participating in the process of bidding,” Chandra said. The highways authority has roped in SBI CAPS as a consultant for its monetisation plan. Canadian funds led by Brookfield and Canadian Pension Fund Investment Board have been bullish on India and are making big bets. Brookfield has already said it is planning to invest $2 billion over the next two-three years. CDPQ has also planned large investments in different sectors in India. “We have been looking at various projects in India to invest in, including roads. A string of investments were announced last week. We also want to partner in one of the port projects,” a senior executive of Quebec-headquartered CDPQ told ET. CDPQ recently inked a longterm partnership with Edelweiss Financial Service Ltd to invest about Rs 5, 000 crore in stressed assets and specialised corporate credit in India. To make the highway projects more lucrative for private funds, the government is also allowing bundling of highway projects so that a bidder can take up a portfolio of projects. The ministry has already asked NHAI to identify projects where bundling can be done and the process of bidding started.(The correspondent was in Montreal at the invitation of government of Canada) Kirk Gibson Jersey
4 new bridges across River Hindon to improve Noida-Gr Noida connectivity
In an attempt to enhance connectivity between the cities of Noida and Greater Noida, the twin authorities have in principal approved the construction of four new bridges across the River Hindon. These facilities will not only bring the two cities closer but also provide connectivity to Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Delhi. A joint meeting was held between senior officials of Noida ad Greater Noida last month and the project was to seek an approval from the joint Board meeting to have been held on Monday, Oct 3, which has now been postponed, officials said. According to officials, while the bridges will be constructed by the Uttar Pradesh State Bridge Corporation Limited, the cost of the project will be shared by the Noida and Greater Noida authorities. “Each bridge is expected to come at a cost of Rs 55 crores. Once we have the approval from the Joint Board, work on the bridges will start within a month and will take about a year to completion,” said Rajeev Tyagi, General Manager, Projects, Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA). Explaining the locations of the proposed bridges, officials said that one of the bridges will be constructed between Noida’s sector 150 via Illahbas village near sector 86 to sector Chi-Phi up to 80-meter wide road, which joins the two cities. A second bridge will be on the road between Greater Noida’s Knowledge Park-2 and 3 near the 75-meter wide road, which is proposed to connect to Faridabad and Noida’s 150 meter wide road. A third bridge will be located from near LG roundabout in Greater Noida to Knowledge Park-3, which connects to a 75-meter wide road near Hindon canal and road between Noida’s sector 146 and 147. A fourth bridge between Greater Noida’s sector 1 and Techzone-4 and Noida’s sectors 112 and 115 has already been constructed but has been proposed to be extended by service roads on either side of the bridge. This bridge also needs building of an approach road from Noida side. Officials further told TOI that all the bridges will assist in decongesting areas of Pari Chowk in Greater Noida, Greater Noida (west) area and the Noida-Greater Noida expressway. “While the bridge between LG roundabout and sectors 146 and 147 will decongest Pari chowk as traffic can bypass Pari Chowk, it will also provide commuters with an additional road between the two cities other than Noida-Greater Noida expressway,” said Tyagi. “The existing bridge between Greater Noida’s sector 1 and techzone-4 to Noida’s sectors 112 and 115 will help commuters who travel to Greater Noida (west) and Noida’s phase-III area, which will soon house nearly 3 lakhs residents,” he further explained. “This bridge will also be useful for commuters who want to travel between Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad,” he added. The new bridges will be 210 meters in length and will have a carriageway of 18.5 meters width on each side. The service roads for the existing 8-lane bridge, which is yet to be opened for commuters, will be 7.50 meters on each side and will support a length a 210 meters. “Both authorities have been directed to acquire land for the bridges and approach roads wherever required and also to incorporate them in their respective master plans for future development,” Tyagi said. Saku Koivu Womens Jersey
How infra trusts will help roads cos cut debt
Road developers, faced with shortage of finance options, are increasingly taking the infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) route to de-leverage their balance sheet and fund projects. Prominent roads companies such as IRB Infrastructure Developers, IL&FS Transportation Networks (ITNL), GMR Infrastructure and MEP Infrastructure have announced plans to launch infrastructure trusts. There are factors which work in favour of these roads companies if they take the InvIT route to raise funds. This can be understood by considering the point at which these trusts are launched. Most road developers don’t have much headroom left for more equity infusion in projects. Analysts said raising money though such trusts will address the issue. It functions this way -suppose a roads company has four operational projects which generate toll revenue or annuity income. The company transfers these fully-operational projects to the InvIT. After mutual consultation and analysis, the trust and the company arrive at a fair value for the projects of the InvIT. The trust gets listed and the roads company gets the equity value of the project debt and the debt owed to the banks is repaid. The company can use the funds received from the trust to reduce debt or secure new roads projects. Also, due to de-leveraging of balance sheet, the company can access additional debt from banks at a better interest rate. In return, the trust, which gets fully operational road projects, gets revenue and pays fixed, compulsory and tax-free dividends to investors. The trust is of two types -90:10 and 80:20. The 90:10 trust will have 90% fully-operational projects while 10% will be under-construction projects.In the 80:20 type, 80% of road projects will be fully-operational and 20% will be under construction. In 90:10 trust, retail investors can invest, while 80:20 trust would see investments largely from institutional investors. The trust earns through the toll revenue or annuity income of the road projects it entails. Analysts point out that the trust needs to generate yield in the range of 10-11% to make it viable for institutional investors such as private equity funds, banks, pension funds, debt funds and high net-worth individuals. In this, only those firms which have more annuity projects than toll projects are likely to get higher valuation as revenues on toll projects are linked to traffic growth and inflation, which can’t be predicted. Among prominent roads companies, analysts believe IRB Infrastructure Developers will be a key beneficiary with the launch of an infrastructure trust. Nevin Lawson Jersey
NHAI to monetise 40 projects in 1st phase, eyes Rs 20,000 crore
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) eyes up to Rs 20,000 crore from monetisation of 30 to 40 projects in the first phase. The move follows the government’s move to authorise NHAI to monetise the public funded highway projects in August. “We target to bring out overall 30 or 40 projects initially and we would be able to raise about Rs 15,000 to 20,000 crore out of it to begin with,” NHAI Chairman Raghav Chandra told PTI. Chandra said NHAI is hopeful of bidding out a few projects by December but the process is going to be a continuous exercise and NHAI would take it from time to time. “We hope that in the next two months we should be able to bid out our first few projects. We are getting DPRs (detailed project reports) prepared …we will be looking at the issues connected to the projects,” the NHAI chief said. “The traffic studies related to that projects, the revenue streams available and overall the viability of the project. As soon as those are ready, we will bunch some of these projects and would be able bid them out,” Chandra said. He said there was enthusiasm about the scheme and NHAI was confident there will be a large number of takers for these. “We already have extremely positive enthusiasm there for this with all kinds of borrowing investors, the Canadians, the Europeans, the Americans and so on and especially the sovereign wealth fund etc in the Middle East,” he said. NHAI is hopeful that as soon as it launches the scheme there will be a sufficient number of takers, he said adding, this would be good in the overall interest of the country as private sector operators will come to manage the roads and “they will be able to bring in a special focus on safety practices”. He said, “Monetisation of projects would be undertaken in a selective manner so that we can raise funds, we would like private sector efficiencies in operating and managing those projects and we do require monetisation to be able to provide us with the requisite fund support that we require to expand our footprint in our programme.” The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on August 3 authorised NHAI to monetise the public funded highway projects which could result in funds in the range of Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh crore initially, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said. Around 75 operational NH projects completed under public funding have been preliminarily identified for potential monetisation using the toll operate transfer (TOT) Model. The corpus generated from proceeds of such project monetisation could be utilised by the government to meet its fund requirements regarding future development and operation and maintenance of highways in the country and could address development of highways in unviable geographies. Market feedback indicates that certain institutional investors from outside the country have a long term investment appetite and are keen to participate in operational highway projects with stable toll revenue outlook. Marcedes Lewis Womens Jersey
Key to urbanisation is monetising land value: NITI Aayog CEO
The key to urbanisation is the ability to monetise land value, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Friday. “If you look at the two bordering cities across Delhi – Gurgaon and Noida – they have not been able to monetise land value and plough it back to develop the cities,” Kant said at a session on ‘Cities as engines of growth’ at the India Economic Summit here. Gurgaon was urbanised without basic infrastructure, the land value shot up but the gains were captured by developers, Kant said, adding that in Noida as well, the monetisation wasn’t ploughed back in the city and was captured by the political parties. As India urbanises, it must learn from the Singapore and Yokohama models to create dense compact and liveable cities, he said. “We can’t copy the American model. When America urbanised, land, gas and water were cheaply available and hence the country created the most polluting cities. India, which has just embarked on the urbanisation process, cannot make the same mistake,” Kant stated. Moreover, India needs determined political will to drive urbanisation, he added. Dave Robinson Jersey
Long overdue road projects cleared
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways today cleared the long overdue project of four laning of 31.5 km Itanagar to Banderdewa NH-415. Union Road Transport and Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari cleared the project when state Chief Minister Pema Khandu called on him at New Delhi. Gadkari instructed the National Highway authorities to immediately start the work, an official release said here. On the request of the chief minister for maintenance of the roads, Gadkari issued directives to the authorities to repair capital roads on timely manner and make it motorable round the year. The National Highway authorities would repair and maintain the capital roads till the much awaited Itanagar-Banderdewa four lane highway comes up, the release said. In another important development, the ministry agreed for declaration of four roads as National Highways. The roads are Akajan-Likabali-Bame (106 km) in West Siang, Margherita-Changlang road (37 km) in Changlang, Daporijo to Dollungmukh via Dumporijo along the left bank of Subansiri River (125 Km), and Tezu to Chapakhowa via Sunpura. During an hour long discussion, Khandu suggested the ministry to try use of geo-textile technology to tackle landslides issues of hilly roads. The union minister appreciated the suggestion and assured him that such technology would be planned for projects in Arunachal Pradesh on an experimental basis, the release said. Gale Sayers Jersey
‘Rs 5,763 crore project to decongest Delhi to become India’s first green road’
The Rs 5,763 crore Eastern Peripheral Expressway project to decongest Delhi is on fast-track to completion in about “400 days” to become India’s first 135 km green road to be lit entirely by solar panels and have advanced traffic system. The project, which commenced in May, will consume a million tonnes of flyash from NTPC’s various thermal plants to utilise waste and minimise pollution. On completion, the greenfield project that had hit several road blocks and saw laying of its foundation by Prime Minster Narendra Modi in November last year, will divert around 2 lakh vehicles passing through the national capital daily to this bypass, curtailing pollution. “I expect this project to be completed by August next year. Apart from being access-controlled, this will have the best automatic traffic management system, land-scaping, way side amenities etc. This is going to be a boon for Delhi. This will set the pace and the path for many such expressway projects which are greenfield in nature all across the country,” NHAI Chairman Raghav Chandra told PTI. Chandra, who inspected the project sites in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, said all 5 contractors on 6 packages of the project are working day and night giving confidence to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) that the project will be completed much ahead of the Supreme Court deadline that is July 2018. “However, we hope to complete the project in about 400 days,” he said. The expressway passes through Sonipat, Bagpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Faridabad and Palwal in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and the proposed alignment crosses river Yamuna at Khurrampur/Khata in UP and Faizpur Khadar in Haryana and crosses the river Hindon. Chandra further said: “We require huge quantity of flyash and were lifting the same from NTPC’s Dadri, Badarpur and Panipat thermal plants. Earlier we were permitted to take flyash only between 10 am to 5 pm but given the massive requirement, I had a talk with NTPC Chairman and now we are lifting flyash day and night.” The NHAI Chief said earlier there was resistance from farmers over land and other issues which have been solved and they are being given higher compensation. The Supreme Court has directed police chiefs of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to provide security for expeditious completion of the project in light of attempts by miscreants and vested interests obstructing the work. “Director Generals of Police, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have been extending full cooperation and our work is in full swing,” Chandra said. The project work has been divided into six packages – 21-km stretch in Sonepat-Baghpat, 24.5 km stretch in Baghpat- Ghaziabad, 24.5-km stretch in Ghaziabad-GB Nagar, 22-km stretch in GN Nagar, 21-km stretch in GN Nagar-Faridabad and 22-km stretch in Faridabad-Palwal. “There are a total of 390 structures in this project out of which two major bridges are on river Yamuna and one major bridge on river Hindon and Agra Canal,” Chandra said. “There are 8 interchanges, 4 flyovers, 71 vehicle underpasses, 6 RoBs etc. The work has been started on 209 structures including all the four major bridges. There is substantial progress on these,” the NHAI Chief said. There has been a very healthy competition among all the developers — Gayatri Projects, Oriental Structural, Sadbhav Engineering, Jaiprakash Associates and Ashoka Buildcon. Watering for the project will be carried out through dip irrigation to save water, Chandra said, adding, “the entire lighting on the expressway shall be with solar power. There is a close tolling system. The user will have to pay for the distance travelled by him on the expressway. “The advanced electronic toll system will be used for collection. The overloaded vehicles will not be allowed to travel on expressway”. According to data available, NHAI has already transferred Rs 1,530 crore for land compensation. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has earlier said, “The government is committed to decongesting Delhi. We have set an ambitious target. This is to complete the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressway in 400 days.” Earlier, the deadline for the project was set as two-and-a-half years. Alexandre Burrows Womens Jersey
NHAI looks to award highway projects of Rs 1 lakh cr in FY’17
The National Highways Authority of India expects to award projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore for constructing about 6,500 km of highways in the current fiscal. “We should be able to award projects for about 6,500 km and costing overall package size for about rupees one hundred thousand crore (in current fiscal),” National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Chairman Raghav Chandra told reporters here. The government is focussing on accelerating road construction and has taken a number of steps to double the pace at which highways are built in the country. As part of the measures, the road ministry last month asked all its wings to act quickly to resolve disputes ailing the industry, which includes a call for developers to transfer cases under the new Arbitration Act. When asked about arbitration payment norms, Chandra further said that NHAI has requisite funds for it. “The government has assured us full support on that count. NHAI will be making payments for arbitral awards and likewise all other organisations for their respective place and we have certain operating procedures so that these can go through seamlessly and expeditiously,” he added. The Union Cabinet in August allowed contractors to move to the new speedier arbitration process, approved release of 75 per cent of the amount in dispute against bank guarantee and provided for a conciliation board comprising independent domain experts in new contracts. The NHAI Chairman further said that NHAI has not received the formal detailing from the contractors who have these arbitral awards in their favour. “They need to submit bank guarantees and other such papers. So once they come in we will bring it on case by case basis,” he said. Replying to another question, he said that “for next year we are already ensuring that we have enough DPRs (Detailed Project Reports) ready.” There is a lot of work to be done but increasingly these projects are more complex and they require more of complex detailing before could be bid out, he said. “So it is more time consuming but we are certainly moving towards that. We are very positive about action on this front,” he said. When asked how many projects NHAI will award through hybrid annuity model in this fiscal, he said, “We have already awarded about 18 or 19 projects and we intend to bring more.” NHAI has also chalked out a pilot project to end daily traffic snarls on the Delhi-Gurgaon National highway with use of latest digital technologies, including Intelligent Traffic Management system (ITMS), surveillance cameras and other digital devices. “The pilot project of decongesting traffic flow on Delhi-Gurgaon highway will soon be initiated and following its success will be implemented in other parts of the country. To decongest traffic on this stretch of National Highway 8 latest traffic management will be adopted including automatic vehicle, stop line violation detection and sensors that gauge traffic and communicate with stop lights,” Chandra said. Larry Andersen Authentic Jersey
No violation in building pseudo bridges: NHAI
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has dismissed as “ totally misleading” the allegation raised by environmentalists over constructing an “illegal” pseudo bridge over the Yamuna. It has noted that the NHAI has taken up the construction of Delhi-Meerut Expressway for providing seamless connectivity between the Capital and suburbs of Ghaziabad, Meerut and the rest of U.P. and Uttarakhand. “This road is being upgraded to 14 lanes (6 lane Expressway at the Centre and 4 lane National Highway on each side). As part of this project, existing bridge over Yamuna at Nizamuddin is also being expanded with parallel 4 lane bridge on each side for removing bottlenecks for movement of traffic between central Delhi and trans-Yamuna areas. It would also decongest Delhi in addition to free movement of traffic,” it explained. To assess the impact of the proposed bridges, a hydraulic study has been carried out by IIT-Roorkee. “From the studies it has been established that there is no impact on Yamuna floodplain area on account of the construction of the proposed bridges. In the proposed bridge, the location of piers has been kept at the same location as of the existing bridge. To further minimise the impact, the span for the proposed bridge has been kept double of the existing bridge. Even a number of culverts have also been proposed in the embankment of the approaches of existing bridge to provide connectivity between upstream and downstream of the floodplains of river Yamuna. In fact, there will be positive impact due to the construction of these bridges,” the Authority said. It maintained that already clearance from the Inland Waterways Authority of India has been obtained. The proposal for clearance has also been submitted to Yamuna Standing committee and Principal Committee of NGT. An application before NGT is also being moved for its clearance. The Authority was reacting to a letter wriiten by environmentalists to L-G Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking their intervention in protecting the Yamuna. Geoff Swaim Womens Jersey
Union Government launches Indian Bridge Management System
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has launched the Indian Bridge Management System (IBMS). It was launched by Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi as a major step towards ensuring safety of bridges in the country. Key Facts IBMS is being developed to create an inventory of all bridges in country and rate structural condition of the bridges. The rating will help for their timely repair and carrying rehabilitation work based on the criticality of the structure. IBMS is the largest platform in the world owned by a single owner, with database that could exceed one lakh fifty thousand bridge structures. How it will work? Each bridge will be assigned a unique identification number or National Identity Number (NIN) based on the state, RTO zone or located on National Highway, State Highway. Bridge Location Number (BLN) will be also assigned to each bridge based on the precise location of the bridge in terms of latitude-longitude is collected through GPS. Thereafter, Bridge Classification Number (BCN) will be assigned to the bridge structure based on the different engineering characteristics. Each bridge will be assigned a Structural Rating Number (SRN) based on allocated numbers which will be used for structural rating of bridge structures on a scale of 0 to 9. The rating will take in consideration of each component of the bridge structure like integral and non-integral deck, substructure, superstructure, structural evaluation, bank and channel, deck geometry, waterway efficiency, vertical clearance, etc. In addition Socio-Economic Bridge Rating Number will be also assigned to the bridges. It will decide importance of bridge in relation to its contribution to daily socio-economic activity of the area in its vicinity. Based on this inventory of various numbers, IBMS will analyse data and identify bridges that need attention. Further physical inspection will be carried out to improve the operational availability of the structure, enhance its life and prioritize repair and rehabilitation work. Reggie Bush Womens Jersey