India is preparing to monetise 28 operational national highway stretches covering more than 1,800 km during the 2026-27 financial year as part of its broader strategy to unlock infrastructure value and generate fresh capital for new road projects, according to a report by The Economic Times .
The monetisation exercise, led by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), is expected to mobilise nearly Rs 35,000 crore through a mix of infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) and toll-operate-transfer (TOT) models.
As per the report, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh account for the highest number of identified highway assets in the current pipeline.
The initiative forms part of the government's larger asset recycling strategy aimed at funding future infrastructure expansion without placing excessive pressure on public finances.
"This year's monetisation will have two built-operate-transfer (BOT) projects, and seven engineering procurement and construction (EPC) projects," a government official was quoted as saying by ET.
Authorities indicated that hybrid annuity model projects are likely to remain the preferred assets for monetisation because they involve comparatively lower capital expenditure risk than other highway development formats.
The latest push follows recent policy changes allowing sovereign wealth funds and pension funds to directly invest in greenfield toll road projects, a move expected to widen long-term investor participation in India's transport infrastructure sector.
According to official estimates, the road transport ministry generated nearly Rs 29,000 crore through monetisation activities during FY26.
Earlier this year, NHAI's first public InvIT successfully raised over Rs 9,000 crore by monetising five highway stretches spread across four states.
Officials also revealed that nearly 1,500 km of completed and revenue-generating national highways may be added to future public InvIT platforms over the next three to five years.
Under the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) 2.0 framework unveiled earlier this year, the highway sector alone is expected to contribute around Rs 4.42 lakh crore in monetisation value between FY26 and FY30. Of this, nearly Rs 68,770 crore is projected to come during FY27.
The revised monetisation framework will also include certain build-operate-transfer projects awarded during the current finasncial year.