India’s highway development agency is intensifying its infrastructure monetisation strategy as the National Highways Authority of India prepares to raise around ₹10,000 crore this month through two infrastructure investment trusts InvITs. The move reflects the government’s continued reliance on capital recycling mechanisms to fund large-scale transport infrastructure while limiting direct fiscal pressure.

According to reports available on https://www.moneycontrol.com, the fundraising will be split between the upcoming public listing of Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust RIIT and a separate capital raise by the already operational National Highways Infra Trust NHIT.

The public offering of RIIT, which will become the first publicly listed InvIT sponsored by NHAI, is scheduled to open for subscription on March 11 and close on March 13. The trust aims to raise about ₹6,000 crore from investors. In parallel, NHIT is exploring raising approximately ₹4,000 crore from institutional investors as it expands its portfolio of operational highway assets.

InvITs have emerged as a key policy instrument for infrastructure financing in India over the past few years. Similar to real estate investment trusts, these vehicles allow infrastructure owners to monetise operational assets by transferring them to a trust structure that generates stable cash flows through toll collections or annuity payments.

For NHAI, the InvIT route forms a central component of the government’s broader National Monetisation Pipeline, which aims to unlock value from mature infrastructure assets and redeploy the proceeds into new construction.

NHIT was established earlier as a privately placed InvIT backed by global pension investors including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. The structure has already acquired several highway assets under the toll-operate-transfer model.

The launch of RIIT represents the next stage of this strategy, opening highway monetisation to a broader pool of public market investors.

The upcoming RIIT IPO will involve the sale of units in a price band of ₹99 to ₹100 per unit. The trust’s initial asset base consists of five toll road projects located across Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

These projects together span about 260 kilometres and form part of the Golden Quadrilateral highway network, one of India’s most strategically important road corridors connecting major economic hubs.

The proceeds from the IPO will be used by the trust to acquire these road assets from NHAI. This structure effectively allows the highway authority to convert operational assets into upfront capital that can be redeployed for new projects.

At the same time, NHIT is in the process of acquiring another portfolio of five road projects from NHAI. The assets carry a combined enterprise value of roughly ₹6,200 crore. To fund the acquisition, the trust is in discussions with investors to mobilise about ₹4,000 crore.

Market participants expect the NHIT fundraising to be completed before the end of March, subject to shareholder approvals for both the acquisition and capital raising.

For the government and NHAI, InvITs offer a powerful financing tool at a time when India is expanding its highway network at an unprecedented pace.

Building new highways requires significant capital expenditure. By monetising operational roads that generate predictable toll revenues, NHAI can recycle capital instead of relying solely on budgetary allocations or additional debt.

The approach also brings long-term investors such as pension funds, family offices and domestic institutions into the infrastructure financing ecosystem. These investors typically seek stable yield-generating assets with relatively predictable cash flows.

According to market participants, InvITs linked to highway assets have been attracting strong interest because of their long-term revenue visibility and distribution yields.