Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced a Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that will look to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors ranging from power to road and railways.

Sitharaman also said the asset monetisation does not involve selling of land and it is about monetising brownfield assets.

Projects have been identified across sectors, with roads, railways and power being the top segments, news agency PTI reported.

"NMP estimates aggregate monetisation potential of Rs 6 lakh crores through core assets of central government over the four-year period from FY 2022 to FY 2025," Sitharaman said. "Ownership of assets will remain with the government and there will be a mandatory hand-back."

Asset monetisation will unlock resources and lead to value unlocking, she said.

Union Budget 2021-22 had identified monetisation of operating public infrastructure assets as a key means for sustainable infrastructure financing.

Towards this, the Budget provided for preparation of a 'National Monetisation Pipeline' of potential brownfield infrastructure assets. NITI Aayog in consultation with infra line ministries has prepared the report on NMP, PTI reported.

The aggregate asset pipeline under NMP over the four-year period is indicatively valued at Rs 6 lakh crore. The estimated value corresponds to 14% of the proposed outlay for Centre under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (Rs 43 lakh crore).

The end objective of this initiative is to enable "infrastructure creation through monetisation" wherein the public and private sector collaborate, each excelling in their core areas of competence, so as to deliver socio-economic growth and quality of life to the country's citizens, Sitharaman added.

The government expects to realise Rs 35,100 crore from the partial sale of Bharatnet fibre assets and around 13,500 mobile towers owned by state-run telecom firms as part of its national monetisation pipeline released on Monday.

Government think tank Niti Aayog has valued over 2.86 lakh kilometre of optical fibre assets laid by BBNL and BSNL under rural broadband project Bharatnet at Rs 26,300 crore, according to the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) document.

According to the document, BSNL's 13,567 mobile tower assets and MTNL's 1,350 towers have been valued at Rs 8,800 crore. Both the PSUs jointly own 69,047 mobile towers, PTI reported.

"Indicative monetisation value of Rs 26,300 crores has been considered over FY23 and FY 24. It may be noted that the actual private investment towards these packages could be lower than the estimated capex and a portion of capex may be met out of grant," the NMP document said.

According to the document, the indicative monetisation value for Bharatnet fibre assets is considered based on a capex approach.

The total approved cost for Bharatnet project is Rs 61,109 crore which includes Rs 42,068 crore for BharatNet (Phase-I and Phase-II) and a maximum of Rs 19,041 crore on viability gap funding (VGF) for implementation of the PPP model of BharatNet in 16 states, according to government information shared in Parliament.

As on March 31, 2021, the government has utilised Rs 24,201 crore for the project, PTI reported

"The bidding process for this project (Bharatnet) is expected to be initiated during FY'22 and the actual outlay of capex will happen over 2 years from the date of award," the document said.

According to the NMP, 5,25,706 kilometres of optical fibre has been laid under Bharatnet project which aims to connect all villages in the country with a high speed broadband network.

Earlier the scope of the project was limited to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats which has now been extended to village level.

In the first phase of telecom asset monetisation proposed in FY23, the NMP estimates to realise Rs 20,180 crore which includes Rs 15,780 crore from Bharatnet fibre and Rs 4,400 crore from mobile tower sale.

In FY24, Niti Aayog estimates to realise Rs 14,920 crore comprising Rs 10,520 crore from Bharatnet fibre and Rs 4,400 crore from sale of BSNL and MTNL mobile towers, PTI reported.

The NMP proposes to realise 6 lakh crore from asset sale during FY 22-25 across various sectors of which 6 per cent value is expected to be realised from the telecom sector.

"The NMP is meant to serve as an essential roadmap for the Asset monetisation of various brownfield infrastructure assets across roads, railways, shipping, aviation, power, telecom, oil and gas, and warehousing sectors," PTI quoted the document as saying.

The government in the union-budget 2021-22 envisioned preparation of NMP to provide a direction to the monetisation initiative and visibility of investors and NITI Aayog was tasked with creation of the NMP for brownfield core infrastructure assets.