Hyderabad: P.V. Krishna Reddy, better known as ‘Megha’ Krishna Reddy, has been a shrewd man since his college days, knowing well where to save and where to spend.
An avid reader of newspapers since high school, Reddy was inspired by the Ambani growth story and aspired to become a successful businessman.
“So, though I was interested in an engineering course, I thought why waste an extra year if my ultimate aim is to become an entrepreneur? Instead [I] opted for B.Com, a three-year degree. Today, my firm employs around 10,000 engineers worldwide,” he’d said in a rare TV interview in 2019.
Reddy, 54, the managing director of the privately held Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL), has been in the news ever since the State Bank of India (SBI) made public its electoral bonds data. The Hyderabad-based firm donated Rs 966 crore (Rs 1,186 crore including Rs 220 crore of Western UP Power Transco, a MEIL associate) in the form of electoral bonds to various political parties in the last five years — the second largest donor overall.
Reddy’s real time net worth was $2.2 billion on Friday, according to Forbes.
“From Zoji-la road tunnel in Kashmir, Char Dham rail tunnel in Uttarakhand to the Veligonda irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh, all MEIL assignments across the country are government-related — Centre or state. So, they very well understand the importance of maintaining goodwill with everyone in the power corridors, political circles,” a former senior executive with the firm tells ThePrint.
MEIL is also involved in the Kaleshwaram and Polavaram irrigation projects — mega water projects on the Godavari river in the two Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The over Rs 1 lakh crore Kaleshwaram project has been mired in controversies, facing allegations of corruption, design discrepancies, mismanagement, faulty works and misappropriation of funds.
A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on Kaleshwaram last month pointed to the possibility “of undue benefit of at least Rs 2,684 crore to the contractors for supply and commissioning of pumps, motors etc.”
The MEIL has executed the surge pools, pump houses as part of the mega lift irrigation project.
According to the electoral bonds data, the BJP was the biggest beneficiary overall, encashing Rs 6,060 crore, while the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the fourth largest beneficiary of the electoral bonds scheme, got around Rs 1,215 crore in five years.
The company reportedly purchased four bonds of Rs 1 crore each on 3 October, 2019 — just a week before the Income Tax Department conducted searches on the premises linked to the firm and managing director Reddy.
Reddy had said in the interview to ETV that MEIL was the first to install a canal top solar unit in the country in Gujarat, when Narendra Modi was chief minister.
Meanwhile, BRS chief and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had faced flak from the Opposition for awarding major irrigation project works in newly-formed Telangana to an “Andhra entrepreneur”.
Reddy boasts of a skilled workforce, efficient managers, lowest biddings, meticulous planning and timely or before schedule completion of projects as pillars for MEIL’s success and astonishing progress.
However, some reports suggest how MEIL’s “sharing goodwill with those in power positions” could have played a role in the unlisted company’s rapid growth into a business empire.
In January 2022, The News Minute reported that executives of MEIL were closely involved in the planning the lavish wedding of Telangana special chief secretary Rajat Kumar’s daughter. Kumar was then heading the state irrigation and command area development department, the nodal body for Kaleshwaram.
The report stated that the executives coordinated the contracts, bookings and payments for the five-day celebrations in December 2021 at three Taj properties in Hyderabad including the high-end Taj Falaknuma. It further stated that a significant part of the gala was billed to a mysterious company — BigWave Infra Private Limited.
In response to The News Minute report, Siva Prasad Reddy, general manager, Corporate Communications for MEIL, had denied any connection with the said firm. MEIL also stated that its executives’ involvement in personal capacity in the wedding arrangements cannot be attributed to the firm.
“MEIL honchos know how to keep people important to them happy by arranging luxury tours, other things. But they also take good care of their employees — good meals at subsidised rates in the office, allowances, gifts — like boxes of Andhra mangoes to name a few,” says the former executive quoted earlier.
ThePrint reached the MEIL communications manager Siva Prasad Reddy for comment via calls and messages. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
From Dokiparru to projects in Europe, Africa
The MEIL story has humble beginnings — starting from a small fabrication unit making pipes at the Balanagar industrial area in Hyderabad. It was set up by Krishna Reddy’s maternal uncle P.P. Reddy in 1989 as Megha Engineering Enterprise, which the nephew joined in 1991 after his graduation. It became MEIL in 2006.
Krishna Reddy is from a middle-class agrarian family in the Dokiparru village of Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district, near the port town of Machilipatnam.
It became MEIL in 2006, and is now an infrastructure, construction major with a reported Rs 40,000 crore turnover and a multination presence, largely under the leadership of Krishna Reddy, MEIL insiders say.
“Krishna Reddy takes a keen interest in day-to-day operations too, like even verifying the logbooks of heavy vehicles at construction sites,” the former employee quoted earlier said.
The MEIL corporate office is based in the same Balanagar area, and not in the upscale Banjara or Jubilee Hills.
MEIL has now gotten into manufacturing, engineering, infrastructure, gas, power, EVs, defence as well as the media sector, having stake in TV9 and NTV. Olectra Greentech is the group’s only listed company which makes electric vechicles like buses.
“It took us about five years to reach a Rs 10 crore turnover and 10 years for Rs 100 crore. To expand business, we went in search of opportunities in different states. We adopt new technologies to aid in faster growth. We have set up a solar thermal concept unit in Anantapuram,” Reddy had said in the 2019 interview, adding that MEIL did the Narmada-Kshipra River link like the Pattiseema project, connecting Godavari and Krishna later in Andhra Pradesh.
Reddy denied allegations of managing the system in the interview. “How can we grab any project when we have an open, transparent tender system? Our credential is competitive bidding and quality work.”
MEIL has a footprint almost all over the country — from Gujarat to the Northeast, Kargil to Tuticorin. It has or is executing projects in several countries in Europe, South America, the Middle East and Africa.
Krishna Reddy is married to Sudha Reddy and has two young sons. Sudha, a philanthropist, fashion and art connoisseur, is a director at MEIL, having begun her association looking after the company’s CSR activities.
In the interview, Reddy said he works 14-15 hours, six days a week, utilising Sunday to read, relax and recharge for the next week.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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