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Road ministry seeks over Rs 120,000 crore in FY20 budgetary allocation, hopes to get at least Rs 83,000 crore

Updated : November 30, 2018 12:36 PM IST

In the last Budget for 2018-19, the road ministry had received Rs 71,000 crore in the budgetary allocation.

As for FY20, NHAI is learnt to have set capital expenditure target of around Rs 140,000 crore.

Road ministry seeks over Rs 120,000 crore in FY20 budgetary allocation, hopes to get at least Rs 83,000 crore

The union ministry of road, transport and highways is learnt to have asked for over Rs 120,000 crore from the budgetary allocation for 2019-20 (April-March).

Sources close to the development told CNBC-TV18 that the demand from the ministry is upwards of Rs 120,000 crore for the next financial year, the ministry is hopeful of an allocation of at least Rs 83,000 crore.

In the last Union Budget for 2018-19, the road, transport and highways had received Rs 71,000 crore in the budgetary allocation. This figure is likely to reach over Rs 78,600 crore in revised estimates as CNBC-TV18 has learnt that the department is likely to get an increase of over Rs 7,600 crore in the second supplementary demand for grants.

With regard to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the capital expenditure target for the next financial year is likely to be higher than the current year as a lot of projects will be in the stage of maturing, sources said. In that regard, NHAI may get a budgetary allocation of Rs 25,000-Rs 30,000 crore.

"Right now, the amount for NHAI is not decided because the allocated amount is seen lower than what we anticipated for the full year. So, it may fall in the range of Rs 25,000-Rs 30,000 crore. NHAI has pinned a lot of hopes on budgetary support so that it will basically define their borrowings for the next year as well,” one of the sources aware of the matter said requesting anonymity.

As for next financial year starting April 1, NHAI is learnt to have set capital expenditure target of around Rs 140,000 crore, out of which the borrowing target is learnt to have been set at an ambitious limit of Rs 75,000 crore.

However, this borrowing target may be downsized later depending on the final amount they are allocated in the budgetary support and how the market behaves, sources said.

As for the current financial year, NHAI is expected to borrow around Rs 62,000 crore.

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