Latest News | Delhi-Mumbai Expressway SPV Gets 'AAA' Rating from Crisil, Others: NHAI

New Delhi, March 16 (PTI) National Highways Authority of India on Tuesday said Delhi-Mumbai Expressway special purpose vehicle (SPV) has received 'AAA' rating from Crisil, CARE and India Ratings.

The project, at an estimated cost of about Rs 90,000 crore, will connect Delhi to Mumbai on a greenfield alignment.

National Highways Authority of India's fully owned special purpose vehicle (SPV) DME Developers Ltd (DMEL) has received AAA rating from Crisil, CARE and India Rating. The SPV is executing the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project, NHAI said in a statement.

Through this SPV, NHAI has planned to diversify its resource base and develop a project-specific sustainable and self-liquidating approach to raise finances.

Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is a flagship greenfield project under 'BharatmalaPariyojna'.

The project is being executed under 48 sub-projects, out of which 17 are Hybrid Annuity Model projects (Vadodara-Mumbai segment) and 31 are under EPC Model (Delhi-Vadodara segment).

"Of these 48 sub-projects, 27 are under construction, 17 are awarded & work to be started and the rest are under process for awarding. The project is scheduled for completion by March 2023, with one of the stretches to JNPT getting completed by September 2023," NHAI said.

The total estimated cost of the greenfield project is about Rs 87,500 crore, including a land acquisition cost of about Rs 20,600 crore.

Expenditure other than land acquisition during the construction period will be about Rs 53,849 crore, to be funded through Rs 48,464 crore debt and equity of about Rs 5,385 crore from NHAI, with a debt-equity ratio marked at 9:1, the statement said.

"For the project, DMEL's role will be limited to housing the debt and servicing thereof. For the debt, NHAI is extending a Letter of Comfort to lenders. The Concession Agreement, Implementation Agreement and letter of Comfort have been finalised," the statement said.

Annuity payments to DMEL will be structured to enable timely servicing of debt and other incidentals, it said.

NHAI plans to form similar SPVs for other high-value highway/ expressway projects, it said, adding this will further enhance its capability to execute large scale infrastructure projects of national importance.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)