Mumbai, June 11 -- Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) new hedging window that lowers the cost of dollar borrowings for the rest of the calendar year is set to spur a fresh wave of overseas fundraising by state-owned lenders. This signals a likely revival in a funding route that saw a sharp slowdown last year.

At least five large institutions-Housing and Urban Development Corp. (Hudco), National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID), Power Finance Corp. (PFC), Rural Electrification Corp. (REC) and Indian Railway Finance Corp. (IRFC)-are planning to raise over $5 billion through external commercial borrowings (ECBs), as the scheme announced last week could make overseas funding cheaper than domestic debt for these infrastru...