How Gautam Adani became a power player

While the Adani group's rise began under the first Bharatiya Janata Party government, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee

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The Adani Group, led by Gujarat-based billionaire Gautam Adani, finds itself at the centre of a political controversy, with the Congress party alleging it is being rewarded for its closeness to the ruling dispensation.

However, an analysis of data on major infrastructure projects showed that the group entities have a knack of winning key projects, irrespective of the ruling dispensation.

While the group's rise began under the first Bharatiya Janata Party government, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it spread its empire across the country and sectors bagging key projects in power and port sectors under the two United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regimes between 2004 and 2014.

While it won 10 key projects worth over Rs 21,000 crore under UPA, in the first two years under the current regime, it has won projects worth close to a quarter of that sum, data from www.infrastructure india.gov.in indicate. The portal, maintained by the finance ministry, has data on some 5,256 projects worth Rs 33.17 lakh crore.

The data include government infrastructure projects (PPP), with project costs of over Rs 5 crore and government infrastructure projects (traditional procurement) and private sector infrastructure projects, with project costs of over Rs 50 crore