The government will raise ₹88,000 crore this year by leasing infrastructure assets of central government ministries and state-run companies under a ₹6 Trillion National Monetization Pipeline (NMP). The funds will then be used to build new infrastructure assets, helping boost economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy. Annual targets under the four-year pipeline have been set at ₹1.62 trillion for F.Y. 23, ₹1.79 trillion for F.Y. 24 and ₹1.67 trillion in the following year.
The top five sectors by value under the government’s asset monetization program are Roads (27%), Railways (25%), Power (15%), Oil and Gas pipelines (8%) and Telecom (6%). Among projects the government plans to lease are 26,700 km of roads, 90 passenger trains, 400 railway stations, 28,608 circuit km transmission lines, 286,000km of Bharat net fiber network and 14,917 towers owned by state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd. Other core infrastructure assets that will be leased under NMP include airports in smaller cities, dedicated freight corridor assets, warehousing assets of state-run companies such as Central Warehousing Corp. and NAFED, and sports stadiums.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the monetization pipeline will be co-terminus with the ₹100 trillion national infrastructure pipelines from this year. She further added that “There won’t be any land sale happening under it. The NMP is talking about brownfield assets where investment has already been made, which are either languishing, not fully monetized or remaining underutilized. So, by bringing in private participation, you are going to monetize it better, and with whatever resource you are getting, you can put it into further infrastructure creation.
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