The Mamata Banerjee government appears to be distancing itself from the Adani group, announcing on Tuesday its decision to decouple the proposed Tajpur port project from the conglomerate that is battling a welter of allegations, from accounting shenanigans and stock price manipulation to over-invoicing of coal imports.
“(There is) a proposed deep sea port at Tajpur. That is ready. You can participate in the tender,” the chief minister said, addressing industrialists present at the inaugural session of the Bengal Global Business Summit 2023.
The statement came as a surprise as the Bengal government had given a letter of award (LoA) to the Adani group more than a year ago for the project that is expected to attract investments worth Rs 25,000 crore. The project also involves the establishment of a new port and an adjacent industrial zone.
No one from the state government wanted to go on record to explain the decision, but a source close to Mamata said the Bengal government did not want to take the risk.
“The Centre’s clearance for the Tajpur project has a clause that says that it can go through if there is nothing adverse in it. This means the Centre is putting the onus and risk of implementing the project with the Adani group on us. Why should we take the risk?” the source asked.
“In case something major comes out against them, we would have to take the blame,” explained the source.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone had emerged as the highest bidder in a tender floated by the government in March 2022 ahead of Sajjan Jindal-promoted JSW Infrastructure. On October 12, 2022, Karan Adani, son of group founder Gautam Adani and CEO of APSEZ, came to Calcutta to accept the LoA from the Bengal government.
The next step in the process would be the signing of a formal concession agreement between the state and the group, which was supposed to develop the greenfield port on design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis. This agreement has yet to be signed.
In January, US short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report that accused the Adani group of trying to pull off the biggest corporate fraud in India through myriad cross-border financial transactions involving entities established in offshore tax havens.
The first sign of uneasiness on the part of the Mamata Banerjee government was palpable during the state budget where there was no mention of the Tajpur port, arguably the state’s most ambitious infrastructure project in half a century.
However, a few industry sources voiced the worry that the attempt to find a new investor in the Tajpur project might have legal implications for the bidder brave enough to try to build it.
A source said the Adani group was not invited to the summit this time.
The decision comes in the backdrop of the controversy over the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee’s recommendation to expel Trinamul MP Mahua Moitra on a complaint that she had accepted money to ask questions against the Adani group in Parliament.
“Today’s development clears the confusion on whether Mahua has the support of the party’s top brass, which was maintaining a silence on Mahua’s battle with the Adani group…. It is clear now that Mahua has the endorsement of the party leadership,” said a Trinamul source.
Moitra has another reason to be happy as a government source said the Hiranandani group also was not invited to the summit.
Darshan Hiranandani had said on affidavit that he had posted several questions on behalf of Moitra by using her log-in ID and password. He also said he had showered expensive gifts on Moitra.
“Both the Adani and the Hiranandani group have business interests in the state…. But Didi seems to have overlooked it for political reasons and lent her weight behind Mahua, who has been playing the role of a whistleblower in the case of Adani,” said a source.
