Bengaluru: The Adani Group is expected to secure Bengaluru’s tunnel road project in Congress-ruled Karnataka, quoting well above the state’s estimate of Rs 17,698 crore.
The Gautam Adani-led multinational conglomerate has emerged as the lowest bidder for the 17-km project from Hebbal to Central Silk Board, with a bid of over Rs 20,000 crore.
“The financial bids have opened. For L-1, the Adani Group has come in. Now we do a financial analysis and depending on its outcome, we move forward,” said B.S. Prahlad, director of Bengaluru Smart Infrastructure Limited or B-SMILE, the state-owned special purpose vehicle for the city’s urban projects, told ThePrint.
This development underlines how Rahul Gandhi’s attacks on the business tycoon, alleging his close ties to the BJP, have not come in the way of Congress-ruled states moving forward with bids from the Adani Group on major infrastructure projects.
This is the first time a project will be developed under a Build, Own, Operate, Transfer (BOOT) model in Karnataka, and a financial assessment of the tunnel project is set to be completed within 60 days, according to Prahlad.
“Under the BOOT scheme, the bid amount has been specified. And, the Adani Group will check the financial shares under viability gap funding, depending on how much it can collect from the public [in toll fees],” the director said.
Earlier, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar announced that the bid amount for the tunnel has been specified, and it is not dependent on the tender amount.
“The government is not paying any money to the bidder. The bidder has to invest in the project, and we will give them only 40 percent of our estimates. I got the cost of the Metro from Mumbai [before making the estimate],” the Karnataka Congress chief, who also holds the Bengaluru development portfolio, told reporters Monday.
Shivakumar Monday also said that the Adani Group would spend Rs 1,200 crore per km for the Bengaluru tunnel road project, which would take the cost of the project up to Rs 20,400 crore.
For some time now, Shivakumar has been pressing for the implementation of the big-ticket project, known to be one of his pet projects, despite opposition from various quarters and a fund crunch.
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Contradictions within Congress?
In October 2022, the then Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government of Rajasthan rolled out the red carpet for Adani at the two-day ‘Invest Rajasthan Summit’. At the summit, Gehlot was spotted sharing pleasantries with Adani, sharing a stage with the businessman.
Adani even announced a whopping Rs 65,000 crore investment in Rajasthan over 5-7 years at the time for the construction of a 10,000 MW solar power facility, the expansion of a cement plant, and the upgradation of the Jaipur International Airport.
Gujarat has produced great industrialists, Gehlot had emphasised at the time, naming Dhirubhai Ambani and “Gautam Bhai”, a term the BJP has used since then to hit out at the Congress for its attacks on Gautam Adani.
While Gehlot and Adani had shared their mutual admiration, Rahul Gandhi had been in Karnataka’s Mandya, mocking Adani.
“The second-richest man in the world is close to the Prime Minister of India. He did not use to be the second-richest man in the world. In fact, he was not even on the list,” he had said in Mandya during an address that was part of his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.
At the World Economic Forum 2024, Adani signed four new memoranda of understanding (MoUs), valued at Rs 12,400 crore, in the presence of the Telangana CM, Congress leader Revanth Reddy.
Deals were signed for a 100 MW data centre and two pump storage projects, worth Rs 5,000 crore each. A Rs 1,400 crore deal was signed to set up a cement plant over five years. Its production capacity was to be six million tonnes per annum.
At the time, the Adani Group subsidiary, Defence Systems and Technologies Limited, also promised the Revanth Reddy-led government more than Rs 1,000 crore in investments over 10 years. The investments were to be used for setting up a comprehensive ecosystem for research, development, design, manufacture, and integration of counter-drone and counter-missile systems at Hyderabad’s Adani Aerospace Park.
The Adani Group has had a big investment footprint in Karnataka with over Rs one lakh crore committed in investments in various sectors in 2022. Though that was during the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government, Adani had invested in the state earlier, as well.
During Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s first tenure—2013-18—the Adani Group committed investments of Rs 21,000 crore in the energy, ports, renewable energy, and other sectors in the state.
“Whether it is Adani, Ambani, Essar or Jindal, anybody who wants to do legitimate, transparent business is welcome. Why restrict to just two names? I want my state to benefit from them all,” M.B. Patil said in June 2023 after taking over as the Karnataka Industries Minister.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)