? Support investor interest in asset monetisation
New Delhi, Sep 1 (Representative) Strong economic recovery, rising industrial production and preference for personal mobility would drive road traffic up 12-14 per cent in the current fiscal, said research and rating firm Crisil. Anuj Sethi, Senior Director, CRISIL Ratings said that road traffic grew 57 per cent on-year in the first quarter this fiscal, albeit on a significantly contracted base of last fiscal, which saw more stringent restrictions. “The bounce-back has been faster compared with the first wave, with normalcy returning in July as against September last fiscal. Consequently, traffic growth is likely to be healthy at 12-14 per cent on-year,” he said.
According to Crisil, commercial traffic is expected to log healthy growth this fiscal given that it is linked with the overall macro economic trends. Personal mobility, on the other hand, is likely to gain preference over public transport or shared mobility due to pandemic-related concerns, thereby driving passenger traffic. “With both these growth engines expected to fire, the sector’s growth prospects look brighter,” said the rating firm. Crisil said that resilient performance through the pandemic and adequate liquidity maintained by players would continue to support credit profiles of companies operating in the road sector.
“The credit profiles of players in the road sector are expected to remain strong, and their debt-servicing ability has not deteriorated due to the pandemic-related disruptions,” said Anand Kulkarni, Director, CRISIL Ratings. Healthy performance will continue to support investor activity in the sector with the rating agency seeing strong monetisation potential in the sector through infrastructure investment trusts, private sales and toll-operate-transfer modes.