Ganga Expressway: The BJP government at the Center is kind to the industrialists of the country. Modi government is not just called Adani-Ambani government. There are strong facts behind this as well. All the reports and surveys testify that the business of one or two well-known companies of the country is flourishing after the year 2014. Even during the Corona period, the owners of these companies have earned record-breaking profits. Now the BJP government has once again been kind to its favorite industrialists.
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This time the Adani Group has got the tender for the Korodas of the Ganga Expressway, the ambitious project of the Yogi government in UP. Apart from Adani Group, IRB Infrastructure has also been entrusted with the construction work of the ambitious project Ganga Expressway. The interesting thing is that the owner of this company is the favorite of Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in the Central Government. The pair of both have been in controversies in the past on corruption charges.
Let us inform you that on Wednesday, December 2, the responsibility of construction of the proposed 594 km long six-lane Ganga Expressway from Meerut to Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh has been given to Adani Group and IRB. The financial bids were opened late Tuesday evening in front of a committee constituted under the chairmanship of Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC) Sanjeev Mittal. On Wednesday, companies were selected for this project of about 36 thousand crores. A total of three companies had bid. The work of Ganga Expressway Construction is divided into four parts. IRB has got the work from Meerut to Amroha in the first phase. Adani Group will do three phases of work from Amroha to Prayagraj.
Apart from Gautam Adani’s company Adani Group, IRB Infrastructure Company has got the work of Ganga Expressway. Let us tell you that IRB Infrastructure is a Mumbai based company, whose CMD is Virendra D. Mhaiskar. He has a long standing relationship with Nitin Gadkari, the Road and Transport Minister in the Central Government. Congress claimed in 2016 that Nitin Gadkari had business links with IRB and got the contract worth Rs 10,050 crore to the company while he was PWD minister in Maharashtra government.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh had accused Nitin Gadkari of corruption and claimed that while Nitin Gadkari was a minister in Maharashtra, all the tenders were given to the company IRB there. According to the Congress, Gadkari’s son Nikhil has also been a shareholder in the company till 2011. Singh had on January 10, 2016 alleged that the contract for the Zojila Pass tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir was awarded to IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited in violation of the CVC guidelines. However, terming all these allegations as false, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had said that there was no irregularity in awarding the contract and the contract was awarded after the company was found technically liable.
Significantly, the Ganga Expressway will be the longest expressway in Uttar Pradesh till date. Adani company has been chosen by the BJP government for the construction of this project at a cost of about Rs 36,000 crore. The target has been set to complete the construction work of this project by December 2023.