BJP ‘tweaked’ rules to gift Dharavi to Adani

BJP government allegedly tweaked terms and conditions in the tendering process, and despite a break due to a change in government, managed to get back into power after engineering cracks in the Shiv Sena. Strangely, the Adani Group bagged the multi-crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project

Hyderabad: When the Bharatiya Janata Party is in power at the Centre, the sky’s the limit for Adani. Even as details of the BJP government planning to hand over several precious public sector units across the country to the Adani Group, with parties including the Bharat Rashtra Samithi citing instances like the Bailadila and the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, here is more.

According to information available from various sources and reports, the BJP government allegedly tweaked terms and conditions in the tendering process, and despite a break due to a change in government, managed to get back into power after engineering cracks in the Shiv Sena. Strangely, the Adani Group bagged the multi-crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP), one of the biggest real estate projects in the country that is being projected as slum redevelopment.

---

Here is the chronology of developments in the last few years which shows how new rules were incorporated into the terms and conditions for the tendering process, which enabled the Adani Group to secure the project.

It all began in 2018, when the then BJP government in Maharashtra led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis mooted the DRP. Within a year, global tenders were floated. However, the UAE-based Seclink Technologies emerged as the highest bidder. According to the DRP, the company which bags the bid has to develop Dharavi, the biggest slum in Asia spread over 2.39 square km and one of the most densely populated areas in the world, and construct multi-stories buildings to house the slum dwellers. During the construction phase, the winning bidder has to provide temporary accommodation to the slum dwellers in a different place identified by the government.

In March 2019, DRP officials wrote to Seclink calling for a meeting to proceed further with the tender awarding process. In the meantime, the State government signed a pact with the Railway Land Development Authority (RLDA) to lease over 45 acres in the neighbouring Matunga and Dadar area for the temporary accommodation of the slum dwellers. And then came a break. The Central Election Commission announced general elections in May. Though the Model Code of Conduct does not apply to projects decided or launched earlier, for reasons better known to officials, the DRP tender award letter was put in cold storage.

And after the elections, there was a change of government with Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena taking over. The Thackeray government decided to cancel the 2018 Dharavi tender, based on the Attorney General’s recommendation. Challenging this, Seclink approached the court and sought a stay on the new tender.

Here comes the twist

As the entire project came to a standstill, a new game began in Mumbai’s political corridors. A faction of the Shiv Sena broke the SS-NCP-INC coalition and formed a new government with the BJP. Under the political pact, Fadnavis returned to the Cabinet, this time, as Deputy Chief Minister and more importantly, as the Urban Development Minister, under whose Ministry the DRP was. Much happened backstage apparently, and when fresh tenders for the DRP were floated in September 2022, the terms and conditions saw quite a number of tweaks.

For instance, the technical expertise norm in 2022 was that the bidder should have built six million square feet in the last seven years. This was against the 2018 stipulation of 25 million square feet. Similarly, the net worth of the bidder was enhanced from Rs 10,000 crore in cash or equivalents to Rs 20,000 crore. While, a reduction in technical experience paved way for a smaller consortium to bid and qualify, the enhancement of net worth would filter many companies from bidding.

Among the three bids, the Adani Group, which quoted Rs 5,069 crore, emerged as the highest bidder. Adani Properties, which is Adani Group’s key real estate entity, gains a few benefits from this mega project. Of the estimated 70 million square feet of property on which the project is to be implemented, about 50 per cent can be sold in the open market. Only the balance has to be used for the rehabilitation of the original residents of Dharavi.

The current realty rates in Dharavi, which are around Rs 10,000 per sft, are set to definitely escalate as the DRP gains momentum, which means Adani stands to reap much more than what he invests for the entire project from the 50 per cent area that he can sell in the open market. However, post the Hindenburg Research bomb that hit Adani in multiple ways, it remains to be seen how he manages to go ahead with the project. In between, with Seclink Technologies alleging that the norms of the tender were modified with malafide intention, the Maharashtra government told the court that tender conditions were finalised considering the ‘overall circumstances of the DRP’ and claimed that the tendering process was fair and transparent.