Public private partnerships (PPP) projects are characterised by highly leveraged capital structure. Lenders who provide the major portion of financing in the form of debt are more concerned with the downside risks and the measures to mitigate the risks. Lenders, thus, look into the risk factors and mitigating measures that could influence the projects debt servicing capability while making the credit decisions. The purpose of this paper is to identify the various aspects of PPP road projects that lenders look into while making the decisions to extend project finance loans to PPP road projects.

Case study research with four Indian lending institutions provides primary evidences from the interviews on the aspects considered during credit decision making. The primary evidences are collaborated with secondary evidences such as loan proposal and information memoranda of the PPP road projects undertaken by the case study organisations.

The study identifies the various aspects of PPP road projects, categorised into six major dimensions. The aspects and dimensions provide a theoretical framework to measure the risk profile of PPP road projects from debt‐financing perspective.

Additional cases can be undertaken to validate the findings and increase the usefulness of the framework to practitioners and enhance their general application.

The framework can be useful while making debt financing decisions in assessing how desirable the project is from a debt‐financing perspective.

The work is novel providing insights into debt financing of PPP road projects in India and will be of interest to sponsors while structuring the financial package.