- **National Highways Infra Trust is a government-backed landlord of India’s highway network - it buys the right to collect tolls on long stretches of already-built national highways, collects those tolls from millions of vehicles, and passes the cash to its investors. It was created in November 2021 by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to recycle capital locked in operational roads into new highway construction, and it has since assembled a portfolio of 28 toll-road projects spanning 2,653 km across 12 states. Every part of the business follows the same recurring logic: acquire concession rights from NHAI under a fixed-term contract, operate the road with NHAI’s own project-management arm, and distribute at least 90% of the net cash generated to unitholders each year.** # Business segments A single engine - a portfolio of toll-road concessions - where the business stands entirely on the right to collect user fees from vehicles on 28 highway stretches, held through three special-purpose vehicles. ## 1. Toll-road concessions: a fixed-term right to collect user fees on India’s busiest highways **The Trust buys 20- or 30-year concessions from NHAI to operate and toll already-built highway stretches, then earns an inflation-linked stream of fees from every vehicle that passes through its 41 toll plazas.** - **Bought, not built** - NHIT acquires toll-collection rights on roads that are already operational under the Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) model, paying an upfront concession fee to NHAI; at the end of the concession period the road goes back to NHAI. That means it takes no construction risk and earns from day one. - **Legal monopoly on each stretch** - the concession agreements grant NHIT’s special-purpose vehicles the exclusive right to collect tolls on those specific highway segments, so no competitor can set up a rival toll plaza on the same road. - **Inflation-linked pricing** - toll rates are revised every April at a fixed 3% plus 40% of the change in the Wholesale Price Index, giving the revenue stream a built-in hedge against inflation. - **Traffic is the only volume driver** - revenue depends on the number and mix of vehicles using the road, with commercial trucks and multi-axle vehicles generating the bulk of collections because they pay higher tolls than cars. Demand is tied to economic activity and GDP growth along the corridors it serves. - **Five rounds of acquisitions built the portfolio** - starting with a 390 km seed portfolio in 2021, NHIT has added assets in five monetization rounds, most recently adding 310 km in Round 5 by March 2026, bringing the total to 2,653 km. The roads sit on the Golden Quadrilateral and North-South/East-West corridors, the country’s highest-traffic highway arteries. # Group structure and partners **NHIT is a trust with NHAI as its sponsor and 10% unitholder, three government-owned management entities running its operations, and a unit-holder base dominated by large foreign pension and sovereign funds.** - **The Sponsor is also the sole supplier of assets** - NHAI settled the Trust, holds roughly 10% of the units, and is the counterparty to every concession agreement, giving NHIT a pipeline of government-owned roads to acquire. - **Management is entirely government-owned** - the Investment Manager (NHIIMPL) is 100% owned by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, and the Project Manager (NHIPMPL) is a 100% subsidiary of NHAI that supervises day-to-day operations and maintenance on all the roads. - **Assets sit in three SPVs** - NHIT Western Projects (NWPPL) holds the Round 1, 2, and 5 concessions, NHIT Eastern Projects (NEPPL) holds Round 3, and NHIT Southern Projects (NSPPL) holds Round 4, with the Trust earning its income from interest on loans to these SPVs and dividends from its equity stakes in them. - **Pension and sovereign funds are the largest investors** - as of early 2024, Ontario Limited and CPP Investment Board each held 25% of the units, and the Board includes unitholder-nominated directors from OTPP, CPPIB, and KKR alongside five independent directors and one NHAI nominee. - **Lenders are secured by the entire cash-flow chain** - borrowings are backed by a first charge on all Trust receivables, a pledge of 100% of the SPVs’ equity shares, and a corporate guarantee from Project SPV (NHIPPL), which is how the Trust has achieved a AAA credit rating from both CARE and India Ratings.