The government is planning to monetise assets under various ministries to meet the target of raising around Rs 2.5 lakh crore through asset sales and has listed eight ministries for the programme so far, which include—road transport and highways, power, petroleum and natural gas, telecom, sports, shipping ports and waterways, civil aviation, and railways.

Sources told the media that alongside these core sector assets, the plan includes:

Divestment of the equity stake of Airports Authority of India (AAI) in the joint ventures that operate the Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad airports.

Awarding 150 passenger trains to private players.

Leasing out stadiums such as the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the national capital.

The Niti Aayog is in the process of preparing a National Monetisation Pipeline for FY21-24 and has asked ministries to identify and share information on the assets to be included in the pipeline. A core group of secretaries for asset monetisation met last month to discuss the shortlist of assets identified for monetisation in 2021-22.

While the government has been planning asset sale for over two years now, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the broad contours of the asset monetisation pipeline in the budget for 2021-22.

Other than these, eight ministries and several others may be included to undertake the asset monetisation exercise. Some potential ministries that may be included are the Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Mines, Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

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