Tycoon profited after India relaxed border security rules for energy park

Exclusive: Military experts raise concerns over change to protocols on Pakistan border to allow project that was handed to billionaire Gautam Adani. 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.