Skip to main content

Middle East funding for Indian roads

Funding from the Middle East looks set to help develop new Indian highway projects. Some $15.6 billion from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), a UAE-based sovereign wealth fund, will be directed towards highway projects in India. This will be used for 50 highway projects in India on a toll-operate-transfer (TOT) basis. The Indian Government is planning to award 104 highway projects under the TOT model that will allow investments by private equity firms, infrastructure developers and institutional in
February 15, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Funding from the Middle East looks set to help develop new Indian highway projects. Some $15.6 billion from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), a UAE-based sovereign wealth fund, will be directed towards highway projects in India. This will be used for 50 highway projects in India on a toll-operate-transfer (TOT) basis. The Indian Government is planning to award 104 highway projects under the TOT model that will allow investments by private equity firms, infrastructure developers and institutional investors such as pension and wealth funds. The TOT model will also allow the government to hand over operations of tolled roads to the private sector.

India’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways says that it will increase the length of national highways to 200,000km from the existing 96,000km. This move will help cut congestion as around 40% of the country’s traffic uses India’s national highway network, despite this network comprising just 2% of the total road system. Some key projects are already in planning with $206.26 million being allocated for the east-west highway and plans for a second highway linking Dasna and Delhi that will feature 14 lanes. Meanwhile South Korean firm Daewoo Engineering & Construction (Daewoo E&C) will partner with Indian company L&T to construct the $480 million, six lane bridge spanning the River Ganges. The new route will stretch for nearly 23km and will be built in Bihar State.

Related Content

  • New funding for 44 infrastructure projects
    December 26, 2024
    New funding awards escalate the launch of 44 major infrastructure projects.
  • Putin orders doubling road-building in Russia by 2022
    November 21, 2014
    Russia looks set to accelerate its road building programme – Eugene Gerden writes The volume of road building in Russia should be doubled by 2022, according to a recent order of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. He said, “We need a real breakthrough in road building during the next several years. These volumes should be doubled during the coming decade.”
  • Realising a dream
    February 20, 2012
    Shem Oirere reports on how major highway projects in eastern African will improve links and the economies of a number of countries in the region
  • India’s highway financing programme planned
    November 30, 2016
    A budget of US$8.97 billion has been set as the limit on borrowing for India’s highways development programme for the 2017-2018 fiscal year. The financing agreement has been made by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), acting through the country’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. This substantial budget comes in spite of fewer projects being awarded as well as less financing having been secured during 2016. In the April to October 2016 the NHAI awarded contracts for 2,330km of highways.