UNRAVELLING MEGHA

After Megha Engineering's name figured in the list of electoral bond buyers, there was unbridled curiosity about its business, promoters and just about everything. Here are the details 

-  KRISHNA GOPALAN

"Please come to Tower 3," says the helpful voice on the phone once the person realises we are lost at the foot of the six gleaming towers housing Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL) that stand out in Balanagar, a decrepit industrial zone in Hyderabad. In Tower 3, we are ushered into a large conference room with a table that can seat 17 (the boss’s chair at the head has the regulation white towel on its armrest) and two massive TV screens hooked up to Megha’s projects. Zoji-la tunnel, anyone? Or a Mongolia refinery in real-time?

With 4,000 people working out of this office, it is a beehive of activity. Venkatakrishna Reddy Puritipati, 53-better known as P.V. Krishna Reddy-walks in briskly. He is a lithe 5’8” or so and looks very fit. "I work out for at least an hour every morning. There is no stress in my life," says the MD of the closely-held company that has been in the news ever since it was revealed as the second-biggest buyer of electoral bonds (worth ₹ 966 crore) between 2019 and 2023. A little over 60% of those bonds were encashed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in power at the Centre, followed by the Telangana-based Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) (See chart Political Bonds). According to a CRISIL report, the company is India's second-largest EPC player by revenue and the largest in irrigation and drinking water works. As an EPC or engineering, procurement, and construction company, MEIL also does projects in hydrocarbons, roads, power, buildings, railways, electric vehicles, and city gas distribution. 

"People would like to interpret our growth in many ways. In India, many companies have won large projects, and I am just one of them”