NEW DELHI: A Lucknow-based construction company, APCO Infratech Private Limited, which is among those companies that bought electoral bonds, bagged two construction contracts within days of purchasing these bonds that were encashed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
APCO bagged a contract for building a tunnel in Kashmir Valley in December 2019, at a time when Jammu and Kashmir was trying to come to terms after it was stripped off of its special status and statehood in the wake of abrogation of Article 370 of Indian Construction.
Amid a communication blockade in J&K, APCO Infratech Private Limited was issued a “letter of award” by the Union Territory administration to construct 6.4-kilometer-long Z-Morh tunnel in Ganderbal district. Estimated to be completed at a cost of Rs 2,716 crores, the tunnel was touted to provide an all-weather road connectivity to hilly resort Sonamarg and areas beyond.
The tunnel also has a strategic importance for India’s defence network as it falls on Srinagar-Leh National Highway, which usually remains blocked for almost six months during winter season. Apart from this, Sonamarg also serves as a base camp for annual Amarnath Yatra pilgrimage via Baltal route besides being a helicopter station for pilgrims and emergency situations.
Electoral Bonds bought after Kashmir Tunnel Project
In a matter of four weeks after getting the clearance for the tunnel project, the company purchased ten Electoral Bonds worth Rs One crore each on January 15, 2020. The bonds were encashed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) six days later, a report in The Scroll said.
After the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, and bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, they have been under the direct control of the BJP-led central government.
APCO Infratech Gets More Projects In J&K
In the beginning of 2022, the company donated Electoral Bonds worth Rs 10 crore to the BJP. Seven months later, the company won a contract from the National Highways Authority of India to construct two stretches totaling 28.92 kilometers of the 650-km Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway.
To be constructed at a cost of Rs 1547.91 crore, the company has bagged the contract to build two stretches in the Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir – a 13.3 kms section between Kunjwani and Sidhra and a 15.62 kms section between Domel and Katra.
The total cost of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra access controlled Expressway is estimated to be Rs 40,000 crores. The 669-kilometer-long Expressway is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
APCO Emerges As Lowest Bidder
Another report by TMRG on August 02, 2022, says that APCO Infratech was declared as the lowest bidder to construct 28.92 km Package 17 of the roughly 650 km Delhi–Amritsar–Katra (DAK) Expressway after National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) opened financial bids.
This 4-lane (expandable to 8-lane) greenfield project’s Phase I consists of 12 packages for the 397.71 kms Delhi–Gurdaspur section and 3 packages for the 99 km Nakodar–Amritsar stretch.
Package 17 in Jammu & Kashmir is part of Phase II connecting Gurdaspur–Pathankot–Jammu–Katra. It consists of 2 disjointed parts – a 13.3 km brownfield section of NH-44, which will be upgraded between Kunjwani and Sidhra and a 15.62 km greenfield section between Domel and Katra, base town of Mata Vaishnodevi.
Its Detailed Project Report (DPR) was prepared by Feedback Infra. NHAI invited bids for its construction in January 2022 under the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) model with a Rs. 1557.51 crore estimate and 2-year deadline. Technical bids were opened in June to reveal 8 bidders.
Financial Bid Values (Lowest 5)
| Firm | Bid (Rs. Crore) |
| APCO Infratech Pvt Ltd. | 1547.91 |
| Vishwa Samudra Engineering Private Ltd. | 1835.55 |
| Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon Pvt. Ltd. | 1867.20 |
| Montecarlo Ltd. | 1899.00 |
| Gawar Construction Ltd. | 1927.00 |
Brief Scope: Development of 4/6-lane Access Control Exp. from Design Chainage Km 515.000-Km 528.300 (Kunjwani to Sidhra Section of NH-44) and from Design Chainage Km 550.900-Km 566.520 (Domel to Katra Section) on HAM under BMP in the UT of JK. (Phase-II-PKG-XVII).
Delhi – Katra Expressway’s alignment (magenta) in northern Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir – TMRG via NHAIAPCO’s bid was 0.62% lower than NHAI’s estimate, so a contract should be awarded in the coming weeks.
APCO Infratech buys more Electoral Bonds
APCO Infratech also purchased Rs 10 crore worth of bonds in 2022 and the same amount in 2023, a total of Rs 30 crore till date. Whether the construction company has bought additional Electoral Bonds in 2021 or in 2024, no information is available. If the company has given cash donations to BJP, that is also not known. No other information is available.
All of these bonds have gone into the kitty of BJP, the data revealed by the Election Commission of India on Thursday shows.
Projects awarded to APCO Infratech
The construction company is engaged in a number of infrastructure projects across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and North India and even in neighbouring Nepal worth more than Rs 20,000 crores. In Maharashtra, it has been awarded contracts to build road overbridges and a coastal road from the Shiv Sena-controlled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
Some of the major contracts include:
– Versova-Bandra sea link project (Mumbai) – Rs 9,000 crore
– Z-Morh tunnel contract in Ganderbal (J&K) – Rs 2716 crore
– Two sanitation/water contracts (UP) – Rs 2732.7 crore
– Bundelkhand Expressway Project (UP) – Rs 1,500 crore
– Two segments of Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway (J&K) – Rs 1547.91 crore
While the total value of these six APCO Infratech projects is valued at Rs 17,496.61 crores, the value of electoral bonds it purchased values only Rs 30 crores.
Ratio: This means that the value of the projects is 583.22 times the value of the electoral bonds. (0.17 percent of the projects awarded)
This ratio imbalance may be further upset when the other projects bagged by the company during this period of donation are taken into account. The company has made some mention of the on-going road and bridges, tunnel, water and power projects.
SC Declares EBs Scheme Unconstitutional
Under the Electoral Bonds scheme launched in 2018 – which was quashed by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on February 15 because it completely kept the contributions anonymous made to political parties – each electoral bond has a unique number that can assist in tracking the issuance and redemption of bonds, and in tracing the bond back to the purchaser.
On March 18, the bench led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud ordered SBI to disclose the unique serial number associated with each EB and all other information the bank possesses while supplying the ECI with data for public release.
On the day, the bench, also comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, noted that the February 15 judgment required SBI to disclose all information in its possession, which will include alphanumeric numbers and serial numbers, besides the date of purchase or redemption, the recipient’s or buyer’s name, and the denomination of EBs.
It called for a categorical affidavit of the SBI chairman by 5pm on March 21 that the bank has disclosed all the information in its custody and that no details have been withheld. The court further directed that as soon as ECI receives the information from SBI, it will post it on its website “forthwith”.
APCO secured contracts worth Rs 4,000 cr in a single day
APCO Infratech bagged contracts worth over Rs 4,000 crores in a single day on July 29, 2022.
According to a report by Construction World, on July 29, APCO was awarded an EPC contract for the development of a 6-lane AC highway from Ranipur Barsi Saharanpur Dist to Adhoya Musalmana Ambala Dist, Shamli Ambala in Haryana. The National Highway Authority of India has proposed the project at a cost of Rs 864 crores.
Along with this, APCO also placed an L-1 bid for the Bharatmala Pariyojna project in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to build greenfield connectivity to Jewar International Airport from DND Faridabad, Ballabgarh Bypass, and KMP connecting spur to the Delhi-Mumbai expressway.
The project, based on the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM), is worth nearly $190.12 million with a completion deadline of 2 years.
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