SBI Caps has been awarded the mandate for syndicating both equity and debt funds for the Moradabad bypass project, official sources said here. The cost of the project has been reworked following a change in the technical parameters.
SBI Caps was awarded the mandate by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in light of its experience in raising funds for highway projects. Almost all highway projects that have reached financial closure so far have been funded by SBI Caps.
The Moradabad bypass is the first project to be funded on the basis of the new methods of funding proposed by NHAI. This involves creation of a series of SPVs, with equity participation by NHAI. The debt would be raised by the SPVs, instead of NHAI, on a project recourse basis.
Based on this experience, NHAI will work out funding for other highway projects. This method is an alternative to relying on budgetary transfers or NHAI having to raise debt from the market.
Sources said this project would be the first domestic and one of the few in the world to be implemented on a pure design, build, finance and operate
