Highway Infrastructure Shares In Focus After Securing ₹220 Cr Toll Contract From UPEIDA
Highway Infrastructure Limited, which runs businesses across tolling, EPC, and real estate out of Indore, has landed a new mandate tied to Uttar Pradesh's expressway network. The company confirmed it received approval from a state authority to take over fee collection and operational duties along a key stretch, under an arrangement that runs multiple years and includes a scheduled payment increase after year one. Exact terms suggest a fairly substantial addition to HIL's existing book of toll contracts.
Shares of Highway Infra Ltd are trading at Rs. 44.61, up 3.58 percent on Friday. The stock touched the intraday high of Rs. 46.74 after opening at Rs. 43.07. The company commands a market capitalization of Rs. 319.95 crore.
₹220.66 Crore Deal
UPEIDA has handed Highway Infrastructure Limited a fresh toll mandate, this one on the Gorakhpur Link Expressway. The company told exchanges on September 18 that it had picked up a Letter of Acceptance for a two-year toll collection and operations contract on the stretch, with the state authority holding the right to stretch that out by another six months if it chooses to. The scope is fairly standard for HIL's tolling business collecting user fees, running the plazas, and in this case, also deploying four patrol-cum-safety vehicles as part of the deal. Total contract value comes to Rs 220.66 crore, split unevenly across the two years: Rs 105.08 crore upfront, then a 10% bump in year two.
Diversifying Revenue Streams
HIL has been on something of a contract-winning streak lately, and Gorakhpur fits that pattern more than it breaks new ground. The order book roughly doubled in the year to March 2026, so a win of this size while not small reads as continuation rather than inflection. What's probably more relevant here is how the tolling business is structured: HIL doesn't build these roads, it just runs them, which keeps the capital outlay light relative to what a contract this size brings in. That's the appeal of the model generally, and it's presumably part of why the company keeps chasing these mandates rather than scaling back its EPC or real estate arms instead.
There's a slightly less flattering backdrop to this win, though. Margins in the June quarter were rough EBITDA margin dropped to 1.6%, down from 10.7% in the same period last year and management pinned a chunk of that on softer traffic at a few existing plazas, Moti Naroli among them, as trade disruptions cut into freight volumes on port-linked routes. Gorakhpur isn't going to fix that retroactively, but it does give the company a new revenue line that isn't tied to the same corridors, and it's the kind of win management can point to when they talk about going after bigger, higher-value toll contracts. Whether it actually moves the margin needle will be clearer once a full quarter of Gorakhpur revenue shows up in the numbers.
Financial Performance
Looking at the quarterly results of Highway Infrastructure Limited, the company’s consolidated revenue from operations increased by 171 percent YOY, from Rs. 111.9 crore in Q1 FY26 to Rs. 303.2 crore in Q1 FY27, and grew by 10.41 percent QoQ from Rs. 274.6 crore in Q4 FY26.
In Q1 FY27, the company’s consolidated net profit decreased by 86.11 percent YOY, reaching Rs. 1.0 crore compared to Rs. 7.2 crore during the same period last year. As compared to Q4 FY26, the net profit has decreased by 88.63 percent, from Rs. 8.8 crore. The basic earnings per share decreased by 87.2 percent and stood at Rs. 0.16 as against Rs. 1.25 recorded in the same quarter in the previous year, FY2026.
Industry Outlook
The broader toll sector in India is growing at a rapid rate. Thus, while a company specific win such as this one is still obviously positive, it should not be overestimated due to the industry context in which it operates. Annual toll collections are projected to nearly double from around Rs 55,000 crore to Rs 1.4 lakh crore within a couple of years due to the increase in the length of highways, FASTag penetration and traffic growth.
Budgetary allocations also point to the sector continuing to grow: road works funding for FY27 increased to Rs 1.22 lakh crore from Rs 1.16 lakh crore in FY26, and the government wants to transition to Multi Lane Free Flow tolling to reduce leakage and accelerate collections by the end of 2026. While it is true that not all operators will benefit from this to the same extent, a sector that is growing at such a pace and has the support of policymakers can only be positive news for a pure-play toll operator such as HIL.
Company Overview
Highway Infrastructure Limited is an Indore-based infrastructure company, founded in 2006, with businesses spanning toll collection, EPC construction, and real estate. It operates across 11 states and one Union Territory and runs its tolling business on an asset-light basis. Arun Kumar Jain heads the company as Managing Director. HIL's order book has grown considerably over the past three years.