‘You are like my son’: When Nitin Gadkari rejected Reliance's bid and upset Dhirubhai Ambani, but…

Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari recently revealed that he had upset Reliance Industries founder and Mukesh Ambani’s father Dhirubhai Ambani when he cancelled Reliance’s bid to build the Mumbai-Pune Expressway in 1995.

In a conversation with Siddharth Aalambayan for Mashable India, Gadkari shared details of his interaction with the Reliance founder. “I had rejected Reliance’s tender of Rs 3,600 crore. There was a lot of noise after that. I did that project for Rs 1,600 crore, which would be Rs 20,000 crore today, saving Rs 2,000 crore. Even today, there are no pits and the road is good,” Gadkari said.

The road and transport minister said Dhirubhai Ambani was upset because Reliance’s bid had been rejected. He also did not think Gadkari would be able to pull off the project.

“Dhirubhai was upset initially, but he was a very big person. He said, ‘if I did not get it, I did not get it, but the Mumbai-Pune Expressway is required. He first told me this [building the project at a low cost] wasn’t possible and you do not have the strength to do it, but later when he saw that it [construction of the expressway] was happening fast. He was very happy. He called me and said, ‘you are like my son, if the country finds five-seven people like you, country’s future will change’. He gave me his blessings.”

Gadkari further shared that Ambani even introduced him to the then US President Bill Clinton when he was visiting India.

“Later, when Clinton came to Mumbai Stock Exchange as the American President, I was the leader of the Opposition and sitting in front. After the event ended, he [Dhirubhai Ambani] called me and took me to Clinton and said ‘He is our son. All the flyovers you saw on your way from the airport, he built it.’ He praised me a lot.”

Gadkari said that he had also received a call from actor Amitabh Bachchan after the Pune-Mumbai Expressway was built. Gadkari had initially hung up because he thought someone was playing a prank on him, and it wasn’t Bachchan on the other end. The actor called again and convinced Gadkari it was indeed him. Bachchan then congratulated Gadkari for successfully building the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

Gadkari was a PWD (Public Works Department) minister in Maharashtra between 1995 and 1999, when he gained first experience to undertake infrastructure projects.

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