The Adani Group is expanding its presence across Congress-led and other non-Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states, with the conglomerate pursuing or executing projects spanning roads, ports, power, renewable energy, cement and data centres totalling about Rs 5 lakh crore as state governments seek private capital for economic development, infrastructure and job creation.
In Karnataka, Adani Enterprises emerged as the lowest bidder for both packages of the proposed 16.75-kilometre north-south tunnel road connecting Hebbal and Central Silk Board in Bengaluru. The company bid Rs 22,267 crore for the project, Rs 3,500 crore lower than the second-lowest bidder, according to sources. The group announced MoUs worth more than Rs 42,700 crore in 2024, including Rs 24,500 crore for three pumped-storage projects, Rs 13,200 crore for a hyperscale data centre and Rs 3,500 crore for cement grinding units.
The ports-to-energy and airports group, WHICH was once considered close to the BJP, now has a project pipeline that increasingly cuts across political lines, with governments from Karnataka and Telangana to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh seeking investments from the conglomerate, sources said.
Tamil Nadu, previously governed by the DMK and now by TVK – both politically aligned with the Congress- has also attracted a significant Adani investment pipeline.
The project, designed to tackle Bengaluru’s chronic traffic congestion, has become a politically sensitive test of the Karnataka government’s willingness to proceed with a large private-sector infrastructure concession despite the bid exceeding its own estimate. Group chairman Gautam Adani had met Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar in Bengaluru last month, shortly after the bid became public. In Kerala, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone developed Vizhinjam International Seaport, a deep-water container transhipment facility that was initiated under the state’s previous Left Democratic Front government and continued under the current Congress-led administration.
Congress-led governments and other opposition administrations are increasingly willing to engage the conglomerate when seeking large-scale investment, infrastructure development and employment.
Sources said the pattern is clear – Adani’s infrastructure ambitions are no longer confined to BJP-governed states.
