Govt Will Make Money From Telecom Towers, Pipelines, Roads; 150+Trains & More (Disinvestment Plans)

 The government has lined up plans to monetize assets such as roads, electricity transmission, oil and gas pipelines, and telecom towers, sports stadiums, among others, with the goal of reaching the aggressive target of Rs 2.5 lakh crore through the sale of these assets.

Assets For Monetization

Notably, the assets shortlisted for monetization comes under the purview of eight ministries.

Apart from the core sector assets, the government also plan to include awarding 150 passenger trains to private players.

In addition with the divestment of the equity stake of Airports Authority of India in the joint ventures that operate the Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad airports.

Also leasing out stadiums such as the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the national capital, according to the sources.

National Monetization Pipeline

Currently, the Niti Aayog is in the process of preparing a National Monetisation Pipeline for FY 21-24.

In the same regard, it has asked ministries to identify and share information on the assets to be included in the pipeline.

Last month, a Core Group of Secretaries for Asset Monetisation had a meeting to discuss the shortlist of assets identified for monetization in 2021-22.

Although the government has been planning asset sales for over two years now.

 In the Budget for 2021-22, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the broad contours of the Asset Monetisation Pipeline.

Afterworld, the Prime Minister also emphasized the private sector and mentioned the need for privatization and monetization of assets to gain liquidation to spend in the government’s welfare and development projects.

Monetization Plans For Railways And Telecom

In 2021-22, the Ministry of Railways targets to raise Rs 90,000 crore through asset monetization with plans to award 150 passenger trains to private players during the year.

In addition to that, they also plan to issue RFPs (Requests for Proposal) and RFQs (Requests for Qualification) to redevelop 50 railway stations by March-end.

Apart from this, the government also plans to monetize assets of MTNL, BSNL and Bharatnet. 

In the meantime, the core group is also informed about the monetization of tower assets of BSNL and optical fibre under Bharatnet by the Department of Telecommunications.

Although, the committee has raised concerns about the slow progress on the monetization of telecom and non-core assets (land parcels) of BSNL.