Adani group reveals mystery co-owner of Australian rail project

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Editor's note: In 2011, when the Adani group acquired the Carmichael coal mine in Australia, it faced a major challenge: how to actually move the coal out from the mine located in the North Galilee Basin of Queensland to Abbot Point port, from where it would be loaded on bulk carriers headed for India. The distance from the mine to the nearest railhead was over 200 km.  And so, the Adani group embarked on a project to build a railway line. This line was originally housed under Carmichael Rail and Port Singapore Holdings Pte, a Singapore-based company with Vinod Adani (chairman Gautam Adani’s elder brother) as director until this February.  The line required nearly $1 billion in funding, and was key to making the coal mine viable. In 2017, the Adani group had sought an Australian government loan for its construction but failed to receive it, even as protests against the project gathered momentum.  While it was widely assumed that the railway line was still under the Singapore entity, a closer look at the annual reports of the India-listed group flagship Adani …