Tycoon profited after India relaxed border security rules for energy park | India

The Indian government relaxed national security protocols along the Pakistan border to make way for a renewable energy park, a project ultimately handed to one of India’s richest men, Gautam Adani, official documents reveal.

The Adani Group is constructing the Khavda plant, the largest renewable project in the world, in the state of Gujarat. The conglomerate is controlled by Adani, whose close relationship with the prime minister, Narendra Modi, has recently been under intense scrutiny.

In November, the US government charged the billionaire with fraud for his alleged involvement in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving renewable power from the Khavda complex. He has denied the claims.

The Adani Group has dominated India’s growing green energy sector and Khavda is at the heart of the conglomerate’s ambitions for renewable energy. The plant is seen as sufficiently important to India’s energy self-reliance and renewable pledges for it to be launched by Modi himself in 2020.

Now, national security concerns have been raised over the project after private communications and confidential government minutes seen by the Guardian showed the defence ministry amended security protocols on behalf of developers to make sensitive territory on the India-Pakistan border commercially viable.

The Adani Group is constructing solar panels and wind turbines 1km (0.6 miles) from the border with Pakistan in the Rann of Kutch, on land leased out by the government of Gujarat. The Rann of Kutch was targeted in past India-Pakistan conflicts and is adjacent to Sir Creek, a disputed territory with Pakistan. The two countries have gone to war four times.

Previous national defence protocols did not allow any major construction beyond existing villages and roads up to 10km from the border with Pakistan, preventing any large-scale installation of solar panels.

But documents show that the Gujarat government, which is controlled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), lobbied at the highest levels for the protocols to be relaxed to make land in the Rann of Kutch available for both solar and wind construction.

According to official communications, a letter was written prior to April 2023 by Gujarat officials to the prime minister’s office, requesting the matter be raised with the ministry of defence.

A confidential government meeting was then convened in Delhi on 21 April 2023 to discuss the solar proposal from the Gujarat government. It was attended by the director general of military operations and officials from Gujarat and from the ministry of renewable energy.

“Apprehensions” around the implications of solar panels for tank mobilisation and security surveillance along the international border were raised by senior military officials, according to the confidential minutes of the meeting. However, the developers gave assurances “that solar platforms would be adequate in mitigating any threats from enemy tank movements”.

Other requests made by military officials for adjustments to solar panel size were rejected by developers on the basis they were not “financially viable”.

At the end of the meeting, the defence ministry agreed with a “mutual consensus” to allow for solar panels and wind turbines to be built as close as 1km to Pakistan, in order to make the land economically viable for renewable energy.

By 8 May 2023, the Modi government had formalised this decision. A notification was issued to all ministries confirming a relaxation of the guidelines around infrastructure development, which applied not only on the India-Pakistan border, but also on land adjoining Bangladesh, China, Myanmar and Nepal. It signalled a significant alteration in India’s strategic posturing along its entire volatile border.

Military experts have raised concerns about the security implications of the decision to relax the border regulations and build one of India’s most valuable private energy assets so close to Pakistan.

Ajai Shukla, a retired Indian army colonel and defence analyst, said: “It is strategically unwise to create a hybrid wind and solar power generation asset within easy striking distance of the India-Pakistan border.

“By changing border defence norms and protocols to make cheaper land available for commercial exploitation, the military is effectively taking on even more expansive defence responsibilities for private commercial benefit.”

According to a senior serving officer, the policy change was met with surprise and concern among army ranks. The Guardian understands that senior army officials overseeing operations in the area were not consulted about the decision.

Two senior officers, who were not authorised to speak to the media, questioned how the military could mobilise in the event of any security threat or incursion from Pakistan, as has taken place in the Rann of Kutch in the past.

“What happens if there is the need to lay mines, anti-tank and anti-personnel? What about the concept of space and surprise in offensive and defensive operations?” asked one officer.

Another questioned the assurance given by developers that solar panels would be enough to stop enemy tanks. “We have compromised the professional requirements to defend Indian territory,” he said.

How the deal was done

At the time that the meeting in Delhi was convened in April 2023, the 230 sq km (90 sq miles) of land closest to Pakistan had been allotted to a state-run enterprise, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). But by August, after the ministry of defence agreed to relax the border rules – making the land 10 times more valuable for renewable construction – it was in the hands of the Adani Group.

Confidential communication states that SECI was encouraged to “surrender” the land at a meeting chaired by Modi’s renewable energy minister, RK Singh, in early May. SECI handed back the land to the Gujarat government in a letter dated 17 July 2023, clearly stating it had not been made aware of beneficial changes to border protocols and maintaining it was not “commercially viable”.

The Adani Group, however, had been informed. Two weeks before SECI had agreed to give up the land, the company wrote to Gujarat officials expressing interest in acquiring it, in light of the “revised” border protocols, in a letter seen by the Guardian.

It was a Gujarat government committee, led by the BJP chief minister, Bhupendra Patel, that reallocated the land in August. Several state-run entities put in bids, but ultimately another 255 sq km was given over to the Adani Group, on top of the 190 sq km it had already leased.

The decision was highly lucrative for the Adani Group. Khavda now occupies 445 sq km, an area four times the size of Paris, and at its peak, the company claims the park will generate 30GW of renewable energy – enough to power entire nations such as Belgium, Chile or Switzerland. Google will be among its customers.

In a statement, an Adani spokesperson said: “We are fully compliant with all the state and central government laws and regulations and have secured all the necessary approvals from the relevant competent authorities.

“The land allocation for the project adheres to policy guidelines and is based on the credentials and performance of Adani Green Energy, India’s largest renewable energy company.”

The Indian government did not respond to request for comment.

Opposition politicians have repeatedly accused the Modi government, and BJP state governments, of entering into corrupt deals and favouring the Adani Group. This has been particularly prevalent in Adani’s home state of Gujarat, where the allegations go back decades to when Modi was chief minister. The Adani Group denies any special treatment by the Modi government.

In November, a US indictment accused Adani and his executives of involvement in an alleged scheme to pay $265m (£215m) in bribes to Indian government officials between 2020 and 2024 in an attempt to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts.

The majority of these “corrupt” deals cited by US investigators related to renewable energy that would allegedly be generated at Adani’s Khavda plant and sold to state governments at inflated prices.

The Andhra Pradesh state government is looking to cancel one of the biggest deals, to buy 7GW of solar power from Adani’s Khavda plant, while France’s TotalEnergies, which paid $444m for a stake in the project, said it was suspending all further investment in the conglomerate. The Adani Group has denied all allegations as “baseless” and said it was seeking all “possible legal recourse”.

In December, India’s parliament was brought to a standstill when Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition, accused the prime minister of handing over the country to Adani.

“The prime minister is protecting Mr Adani and the prime minister is involved in corruption with Mr Adani,” said Gandhi. “Adani has hijacked India … The country is in Adani’s grip.”