In Kerala, Modi government favouring Adani group in highway road projects: Venugopal

Congress MP K.C. Venugopal on Monday (December 15, 2025) questioned whether the “massive spending” on roads and bridges by the Centre was resulting in safe roads and accountable governance or creating a system where public funds were being converted into private profit for a chosen few. He cited the case of Kerala where, he alleged that, the government was favouring the Adani group while awarding the highway road projects.

Participating in the discussion on Supplementary Demand for Grants in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Venugopal said that from Kasaragod in the north to Kollam in the south, National Highway projects, two major stretches NH 66 and NH 544 were collapsing before the eyes of the public.

“What is happening in Kerala is not an act of nature. It is the result of a system where speed and profit were prioritised over safety and scientific planning”. The MP said some of the road projects had been awarded for as high as ₹45 crore per kilometre in Kerala and termed it a “highway scam”.

“The scam is not accidental, but it is designed and facilitated by the Hybrid Annuity Model introduced by the Modi government in 2016”, he said.

He gave the example of the project of the Azhiyoo-Vengalam stretch of NH 66 in north Kerala, which, he said, was awarded to Adani Enterprises at ₹1,832 crore, which was sub-contracted to Wagad Infraprojects, Ahmedabad, for ₹971 crore, almost half the bid amount.

So, the actual cost was ₹23.7 crore/km as against Adani’s bid of ₹45 crore/km, he said, adding this loot was legal because it had been designed in such a fashion, the Congress leader alleged.

Fundamental question

The MP said that for the year 2025–26, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways proposed an expenditure of nearly ₹2.87 lakh crore, which was higher than last year. The allocation for roads and bridges alone was more than ₹1.16 lakh crore. But the House must ask a fundamental question as to whether this massive spending was resulting in safe roads, accountable governance, and value for public money or was it creating a system where public funds were converted into private profit for a chosen few?

He flagged the case of the ‘Bharatmala Pariyojana’, the flagship highway programme of the government. “Approved in 2017, Bharatmala Phase One was supposed to be completed by 2022, with a planned cost of ₹5.35 lakh crore. Today, nearly eight years later, almost 88% of this amount has already been spent. Yet, only about half of the planned road length has actually been constructed”, he said.

DMK’s T.R. Baalu demanded that the Centre immediately release to Tamil Nadu, the pending funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, increase minimum support price (MSP) for paddy, grant approval to metro projects for Coimbatore and Madurai and approve rightful dues under the Samagra Siksha Abhiyan.

Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav also claimed that the BJP government was working for the big corporates and helping them with loan waivers but not providing any support in terms of waiver to distressed farmers. He wondered why the government was not implementing the Swaminathan Commission Report on MSP.