Dikhyaa Mohanty 
After Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement on Disinvestment during the Union Budget 2021-2022, a core group of secretaries has shortlisted about 30 projects and assets for monetization. Secretaries from Infrastructure sectors along with Niti Aayog officials were also presented during the meeting.
As per the reports the core group addressed a host of projects that could be monetized on a superiority base that incorporates many routes of the Delhi Metro, power transmission assets of Powergrid worth Rs 10,000 crore, gas pipeline assets of GAIL meriting Rs 10,000 crore, and some ports.
Regarding the aggressive privatization of stations and Railway routes, a few public spaces and sports stadiums including Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was also reviewed during the meeting.
The report further informs that the meeting has shortlisted around 30 projects and Niti Aayog has already been tasked with the detailed list and the valuation of these projects. The Aayog will negotiate with independent agencies and provide a detailed valuation of each asset.
The expected projects which are to be rewarded within the next six months are – Konkan Railways, Kolkata Metro, Mumbai CSMT Station, and New Delhi Station. Railways are already working with Aayog to come up with RFQs for 40 more stations for their redevelopment under the PPP model.
The aviation ministry, which has shortlisted Tiruchirappalli, Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Raipur, and Indore airports, is also intriguing to give 12 more to private players for operations in FY22.
The government is also banking on asset monetization to help bring its fiscal deficit to below 4.5 percent of GDP by 2025-26 and Nirmala Sitharaman already tightened India’s fiscal deficit at 9.5 percent in 2020-21 and 6.8 percent in 2021-22.
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