Adani Road Transport has emerged as the top bidder to manage a 124-km national highway stretch in Tamil Nadu under the toll-operate-transfer (TOT) model, with a Rs 1,692 crore offer. The Adani Group company was followed by IRB Infrastructure Developers (Rs 1,485 crore), Epic Concessions (Rs 1,152 crore) and Prakash Asphaltings & Toll Highways (Rs 876 crore) for the four-lane Trichy-ThuvarankurichiMadurai section on NH-38. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) opened the financial bids on Tuesday and is expected to award the contract to the highest bidder after getting approval from its board, a senior government official told ET. The authority, which operates under the administrative control of the ministry of road transport and highways, had auctioned TOT Bundle 15 in mid-2024. Under the TOT model, highway assets are leased to private entities with the right to operate, maintain and collect tolls for 15-30 years, against a one-time, upfront concession fee paid to the government.NHAI has identified 86 national highway stretches with an aggregate length of about 4,912 km for monetisation. Prior to Bundle 15, it had monetised five stretches (11, 12, 13, 14 and 16), and expects to award three more by the end of the current financial year. The highway operator has a target to raise `54,000 crore through monetisation of road assets in fiscal year 2025, to fund new projects and repay debt. It had total debt of around `2.76 lakh crore at the end of December 2024.In September 2024, Highways Infrastructure Trust won the contract for TOT Bundle 16.