Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on February 1 that a national monetisation pipeline will be launched, with a dashboard to track the progress and provide visibility to investors.
Tabling the Union Budget for 2021-22, Ms. Sitharaman said, "Monetising operating public infrastructure assets is a very important financing option for new infrastructure construction."
Laying out the roadmap for this initiative, Ms. Sitharaman said, NHAI & PGCIL will take lead in this. Transmission assets worth ₹7,000 crores will be transferred to PGCIL. Railways will monetise dedicated freight corridor assets. The next lot of airports will be monetised for operation and management. Central Warehousing Corp, sports stadiums will also be monetised, she said.
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Asset monetisation is the process of unlocking the value of investment made in public assets which have not yielded appropriate or potential returns so far.