The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) today said it needs to borrow up

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to Rs 33,000 crore over the next three years to implement road projects on build, operate and

transfer (BOT) basis.

The borrowing requirement for the current fiscal, in which the Authority has set a target to award 12,000 km of road projects, is up to Rs 7,000 crore.

"Our fund requirement in the next three years will be Rs 32,000-33,000 crore for BOT projects. We are looking to raise Rs 5,000-7,000 crore from various options this fiscal. We are discussing with the World Bank also, but this is at a preliminary state," NHAI Member Finance, JN Singh, told reporters here on the sidelines of Construction Summit.

"We are planning to award 12,000 km of roads this financial year and investment required will be roughly Rs 1.20 lakh crore," Singh said.

The borrowing requirement for the next fiscal is Rs 11,000 crore, while for 2012-13, the Authority plans to raise Rs 15,000 crore, he said.

At present, 54 EC tax exemption bonds are the main source of funding for the government's portion in the highways project.

The Authority responsible for implementing National Highways Development Project (NHDP) in seven phases, has already made it clear that it needs to borrow up to Rs 20,000 crore per year for the next 15 years to implement Rs 9 lakh crore-worth of road projects in the public-private-partnership mode till 2031-32.

"NHAI would need Rs 10,000-Rs 20,000 crore annually as borrowing from the domestic and international market for a period of next 15 years," NHAI Chairman Brijeshwar Singh said earlier this week.

As per the government's target of building 20 km road every day, NHAI plans to complete award process for construction for 36,000 km of roads in the next three years.