The Congress on Sunday asked if there was no limit to the favours the Prime Minister would bestow on his friends, flagging a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to allege that an Adani group company had been handed a national highway project even though it was not qualified to bid for it.

“The Bharatmala Pariyojana is aimed at developing 35,000km of national highways to make freight movement across the country more efficient. Yet, the most remarkable feature of the project has been the efficiency with which costs have been inflated and projects handed over to the Prime Minister’s close friends and his party’s electoral bond donors, as shown in a recent CAG report covering the period 2017-21,” Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has awarded a 250km project to four-lane the national highway between Suryapet and Khammam in Telangana to a consortium in which Adani Transport is the dominant partner with a 74 per cent work share.

Ramesh said: “According to the CAG, Adani ‘did not fulfil the condition of Request for Proposal regarding experience of five years building highways. Instead, the company provided an experience certificate in the name of a different company, and that too in a different sector from road-building i.e. power. Even the certificate showing that the consortium had a net worth of Rs 304 crore was in the name of a different company!”

Ramesh continued: “Despite being completely unqualified to bid, Adani Transport once again benefited from Modi’s Magic. NHAI declared on February 20, 2019, that Adani was qualified to bid (without giving reasons) and awarded the project to the Adani-led consortium on March 8, 2019, at a cost of Rs 1,566 crore. Under the ‘hybrid annuity model’ the Adani consortium received 40 per cent of the project amount as direct cash subsidy, even though it was never actually qualified to bid.”

The Congress leader asked: “Is there no limit to the favouritism that the Prime Minister will bestow upon his close friends, colleagues and financiers when it comes to lucrative infrastructure contracts?”

Ramesh added: “Other projects were awarded to one firm with strong BJP links and to four other firms that have been major donors to the BJP, as shown in the party’s own financial statements.

“This leads to many questions: Is there not a quid pro quo behind the award of these projects by the Modi government-controlled NHAI? Will the BJP release its entire list of donors in the last nine years?... Are Indian taxpayers’ funds simply meant to line the pockets of the PM and his friends?”