Roping in Non-Resident Keralites (NRKs) by enrolling them for the Pravasi Chitty of Kerala State Financial Enterprises (KSFE) has been mooted for the construction of the 1,267-km Hill Highway and the 630-km Coastal Highway.
The target is to get the chitty subscribed by at least one-lakh NRIs in the first year and to mobilise Rs.10,000 crore needed by the KIIFB for the highways through Pravasi Chitty, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac said unveiling the novel fund raising experiment in the Budget for the highways.
NRKs can make their monthly remittance through any of the payment gateways. The entire remittance will be invested automatically in the NRI Bonds of the KIIFB.
The KSFE will have the call option withdrawing sufficient amount at the time the subscriber gets the bid or when withdrawing the deposited chitty amount. The balance free float will remain in the KIIFB funds and there will be no difficulty in raising Rs.12,000 crore, Dr. Isaac said, adding the hill highway work will commence in 2017-18.
Govt. guarantee
The investments will have the guarantee of the State government and the comprehensive security of the KSFE, he said. Stating that there will be no additional risk for the investor in investing the excess amount in the KIIFB, the Finance Minister said The KSFE will launch the scheme in June.
Stressing the priority for high quality infrastructure facilities in the State, the Finance Minister said an amount not less than Rs.50,000 crore would be initiated in the next five years.
For the sanctioned public works in 2017-18, Rs.13,000 crore had been allocated. The public works sanctioned include the Rs.705 crore under MLAs Asset Development Fund, investment from the KIIFB and Rs.612 crore for maintenance works.
In addition to the State highways proposed, the KIIFB will invest Rs.5,628 crore for the construction of 182 roads and Rs.2,557 crore for constructing 69 bridges and flyovers.
The Roads and Bridges has been given Rs.1,351 crore. The Finance Minister said that the pending arrears of Rs.1,300 crore to the contractors, who had executed the public works, was to be cleared.
Courtesy: The Hindu, 03 March 2017
