Reliance, Adani and IRB Infra-GIC consortium vie for Mumbai-Pune Expressway toll rights
17 Oct 2019
Adani Group and Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group are competing with a consortium of IRB Infrastructure and Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) for toll operation rights on Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
Besides, Cube Highways and Infrastructure, a road platform backed by I Squared Capital and a few other private equity firms, is also in the race to acquire tool rights for the country’s busiest stretch of highway, reports citing sources said.
The Maharashtra State Road Development Corp. (MSRDC) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) are expecting at least Rs8,00,000 crore from sale of rights, they said.
SBI Capital Market has been mandated to find a new operator as IRB Infrastructure’s 15-year contract expired in August.
Mumbai-Pune Expressway, a build-operate-transfer project, contributed highest revenue of Rs918 crore in FY19 to IRB, nearly double the revenue from that of the Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway, which earned Rs429 crore that year.
The winning bid is expected to be picked within a month, the report added citing the sources.
Reliance Infrastructure owns 11 road projects with a total length of about 1,000 km on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis.