Donors of electoral bonds list: Son of an Andhra Pradesh farmer is starting a Megha-sized life

Hyderabad: The news that Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd. (MEIL) was the second-largest contributor on the electoral bond donor list released by the Election Commission of India on Thursday night shocked a lot of the nation’s most influential corporate and political circles.
Between April 2019 and November 2023, MEIL, also referred to as the Megha Group, gave a total of Rs 1,232 crore to political parties, both directly and through affiliated businesses. MEIL gave Rs 966 crore, Western UP Power Transmission Co. Ltd. gave Rs 220 crore, SEPC Power gave Rs 40 crore, and Evey Trans Pvt. Ltd. gave Rs 6 crore.

However, there was nothing noteworthy about Megha’s start. In 1989, Pamireddy Pitchi Reddy, an Andhra Pradesh farmer’s son from the Krishna district, planted the seeds. His nephew, Puritipati Venkata Krishna Reddy, fostered it into one of the biggest companies in engineering and building in India.
MEIL started off as a modest fabrication facility called MEE, which worked in the bustling alleys of Hyderabad’s fabrication centre, Balanagar, producing pipes for minor municipality water projects. Krishna Reddy joined the company in the early 1990s, and in 1996 it advanced to become a contractor for small-scale drinking water and irrigation projects in the United States. From here, the company progressively spread across states like Karnataka and Rajasthan after 2000, and in 2006 it changed its name to MEIL.
Those who are acquainted with Megha Group’s history note that it took the company around ten years to reach a revenue of Rs 100 crore and two decades to surpass Rs 1,000 crore.
The major surge occurred between 2010 and 2018, when MEIL started a fast diversification trip and ventured into new states, industries, and nations. Due to this, revenues soared beyond $1 billion in 2014–15, $2 billion in 2016–17, and $3 billion in 2017–18.
Over the last 35 years, MEIL has transformed into a multi-national company with a revenue of Rs 40,000 crore, operating in over 20 countries. From only 4-5 workers in 1989, it now employs over 2 lakh people directly and indirectly across 25 companies in a variety of industries, including transportation, solar and thermal power, agriculture, drinking water, oil and gas, EV manufacture, military, communications, and railway infrastructure.
This includes its only publicly traded company, Olectra Greentech, an EV manufacturer that works with China’s BYD on technology projects to produce electric buses.
Along the way, MEIL established a reputation for completing massive projects ahead of schedule and setting several records. Examples of these projects include Telangana’s Kaleshwaram, the biggest multi-stage lift irrigation project in the world, and AP’s Polavaram, which has the largest spillway in the world.
Having constructed NHs spanning more than 700 km, it is now undertaking 40 road projects spanning 2,000 km around the nation, including the construction of Asia’s largest bi-directional tunnel at Zojila, located in the perilous Himalayan region at an elevation of 11,578 feet.