The redevelopment of 40 railway stations, tendering out of six airports, two natural gas pipelines, warehousing facilities of Food Corp. of India (FCI) and Central Warehousing Corp. (CWC), port projects in Paradip, Mumbai, Kandla, Visakhapatnam are in the government’s asset monetization plan to raise ₹88,000 crore in FY22.
Under the ₹6 trillion National Monetization Pipeline (NMP) unveiled on Monday, a total of ₹17,810 crore is expected to be garnered by redeveloping 40 railway stations in FY22 out of the total 400 up for grabs by FY25.
The railways has initiated the redevelopment with the primary objectives of providing world-class passenger amenities, making them hubs of economic development and re-establishing them as the nerve centres of cities.
The government also targets to redevelop two hill railway stations for ₹460 crore. The mountain railways of India consists of fully functional and operational railway networks. The key assets are Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the Nilgiri Mountain Railways, the Kalka Shimla Railway and the Matheran Railway. These are tourism hubs with a heritage-based appeal.
For FY22, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has identified six airports in tier-2 and 3 cities—Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy—for the purpose of monetization through brownfield PPP models.
“To ensure commensurate development of non-profitable airports along with profitable ones with the help of private sector investment and participation, pairing/clubbing of smaller airports with the six bigger airports and leasing out as a package is being explored,” the NMP documents said.
Further, divestment of AAI’s residual stake in four airport joint ventures has also been considered under the monetization pipeline. This includes the private sector operated airports in Mumbai (26% stake), Delhi (26% stake), Hyderabad (13% stake) and Bengaluru (13% stake). The stake sale and monetization of the six airports are expected to fetch ₹5,720 crore in FY22.
In the power sector, ₹7,700 crore is expected to be raised, including through the Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd (PGCIL) infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), which was listed in the stock market in the June quarter.
For FY22, two natural gas pipelines with a total length of 2,229km namely, Dabhol-Bengaluru pipeline and Dahej-Uran-Panvel-Dabhol pipeline have been identified for monetization to raise ₹6,687 crore. Petroleum product pipelines of 755km for ₹2,697 crore and one hydrogen generation plant for ₹600 crore will also be monetized.
By leveraging environment, social and governance (ESG) assets, the government targets to raise ₹2,000 crore.
The potential asset base considered for monetization under warehousing assets consists of storage depots and warehouses under central sector agencies FCI and CWC. The NMP documents said the rising demand for e-commerce space offers a new set of opportunities for logistics players.
Out of ₹5,780 crore targeted to be raised in FY22, FCI storage infra may fetch ₹3,500 crore, while CWC storage infra is likely to garner ₹2,280 crore.
The government expects to garner ₹3,394 crore as royalty through coal mining auctions in FY22. The government’s recent initiative towards opening up commercial mining to the private sector in India is expected to prove key to asset monetization in the sector.
Port projects that will be tendered out include Paradip, Mumbai, Kandla and Visakhapatnam to raise ₹6,942 crore. By leasing out stadiums for a period of 30 years, the government also expects to garner ₹1,650 crore in FY22.
Source : Live Mint
