Mumbai — Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani said Monday that large infrastructure projects such as the Mundra and Vizhinjam ports and the Khavda renewable energy complex do more than meet existing demand, arguing that they can create new economic capabilities and transform the regions around them.
Speaking at CareEdge Group’s annual summit, Adani said India has entered a new phase of infrastructure development and that traditional methods of evaluating such projects must evolve.
“India has now entered a very different period. The nature of infrastructure has changed, and the sophistication of our rating frameworks must evolve alongside the sophistication of what India is building,” he said.
“If we build only for the demand we can see today, India will always be late for the opportunities of tomorrow,” Adani added.
Citing Mundra Port in Gujarat, Adani said the project might have appeared unattractive under a conventional assessment three decades ago because the area lacked an established industrial ecosystem.
Today, he said, Mundra has become one of India’s most important commercial gateways while also supporting a wider network of rail links, logistics centers, power plants, industrial zones, traders and manufacturers.
“Today, Mundra is easily one of India’s most important commercial gateways. But more importantly, Mundra has created an ecosystem multiple times the size of the port,” Adani said.
He made a similar case for Vizhinjam Port in Kerala, saying the project struggled to attract investors for about 25 years because of concerns over its complexity and capital requirements.
Adani said India’s inability to handle more of its own container traffic had forced cargo to be transshipped through foreign ports such as Singapore, Dubai and Colombo.
“For decades, Indian commerce paid a direct sovereignty tax to foreign ports simply because domestic infrastructure was deemed too risky for institutional capital,” he said.
Adani also pointed to the Khavda renewable energy project in Gujarat, saying a traditional assessment could focus heavily on the difficult terrain, execution risks and uncertainty around future demand.
“But what is missed is that Khavda is not a renewable energy project,” he said. “Khavda is a platform where energy, artificial intelligence, manufacturing, digital infrastructure and industrial capability converge at an unprecedented scale.”
He said the project could supply clean electricity for future computing infrastructure and support the development of India’s artificial intelligence and manufacturing ecosystem.
Adani said India’s infrastructure ambitions were once constrained by limited resources, capabilities and confidence, but argued that the country has since demonstrated a greater ability to execute projects at scale.
He also highlighted the rapid expansion of roads, ports and airports, along with growth in renewable energy capacity and digital infrastructure across the country. (Source: IANS)
