But a Fairfax Media investigation into the treatment of 6000 construction labourers at a luxury housing project in Gujarat owned by the Adani family has uncovered lax safety standards, underage workers and regular cholera outbreaks from contaminated drinking water. No show: The place set for Gautam Adani who failed to attend lunch with Prime Minister Tony Abbott in Mumbai on Thursday. Credit:Andrew Meares It comes after Mr Adani's company was found in February to have failed to gain proper environmental approval for construction around India's largest private port, also in Gujarat - destroying mangroves and displacing local villagers. Mr Adani has plans for a $16 billion project to ship coal from Queensland's Galilee Basin to the energy-hungry Indian market and has lobbied the federal and Queensland governments intensively for the necessary environmental approvals. Mr Adani and his company Adani Group have lavished gifts on Australian politicians, presenting Queensland premier Campbell Newman with a $2400 silver and rock crystal compass, and a silver Indian vase and pashmina wrap to Mr Abbott.

Fairfax Media is not suggesting the approval for Mr Adani's operations in Australia was made as a result of the gifts. Gautam Adani. Credit:Glenn Hunt Environment Minister Greg Hunt has signed off on plans to dredge millions of tonnes of silt to expand the nearby Abbot Point coal terminal and dump the sludge in waters in the Great Barrier Reef. Mr Hunt is set to make a decision this month on Mr Adani's plan for a train line to the mine.

Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart - who has separate plans with another Indian company for another mine in the Galilee - joined Mr Adani's company to lodge a joint assessment of the proposed expansion of the port. Waratah, a company owned by Clive Palmer, also has a separate stake in the Galilee. But Mr Adani's poor environmental record in India has fuelled a campaign by conservation groups and the tourism industry against the port expansion. The latest revelations of misconduct centre on one of India's largest property developments. Located on 260 hectares on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujurat and Mr Modi's home state, the Shantigram luxury estate is marketed with the tagline "The Good Life".

But few - if any - of the workers at Shantigram are protected in accordance with state and federal laws; many are paid well below the minimum wage of $4 a day, and some not at all. Many of the labourers working to build the dozens of apartment towers that will house up to 30,000 people, complain they are effectively being held in a form of bonded labour. "We have not been paid since we started work at the beginning of May," said 32-year-old tiler Bhavesh Meena, who works 10 to 12-hour days, six days a week. "All we have been given is food expenses of 500 rupees a week [about $9]." Like most of the workers at Shantigram, Mr Meena came to Gujurat from another state, leaving his wife and two children behind while he pursued work. "Because I have not been paid, I cannot leave until I am paid, I am trapped here," said Mr Meena, who represents a group of 45 workers in the same situation. "We are arguing and fighting to be paid, but they keep saying they dispute what they owe us, and they never pay us except to buy food."

Another construction worker, Rajukumar Mangal Dindor, 26, who represents 20 construction workers, told Fairfax Media that he was in a similar position. "I have been here 10 months, and sometimes we are paid at the end of the month, but sometimes we are not. I know of many workers who are not paid at all." One 12-year-old boy from the state of Bihar, who did not want to give his name, said he was paid 150 rupees a day, about $2.60, to carry drinking water to the workers. He said he worked 12 hours a day, and had only Sundays off. A 40-year-old man from west Bengal said he earned $3.50 a day to dig trenches for drainage and sewage pipes for 10 hours a day. In a June study of the wages and working conditions of construction workers at Shantigram conducted by the Prayas Centre for Labor Research and Action in Ahmedabad, by outsourcing labour to multiple contractors, the Adani Group has been able to avoid complying with state and federal laws.

"Almost one fourth workers are getting less than 230 rupees per day [$4], the minimum wage for unskilled construction workers in Gujarat," the report said. "Another 29 per cent of workers are getting between 231 and 300 rupees per day [$5.30] ... the lowest wage rate reported was 130 rupees per day [$2.30]." With the Gujarat state government recently announcing a rise in wages to $5 a day, the report says that nearly half the workers at Shantigram are receiving less than the daily minimum wage - with the added disadvantage of having no legal protection from federal and state law because they are not registered. The report also points to lax health and safety practices at Shantigram, alleging a large number of fatalities at the site since construction began five years ago, including three deaths from accidents this year. The Chief District Health Officer, Dr D.C. Jagani, told Fairfax Media that living quarters provided by the Adani Group for the workers was also inadequate, with poor sanitary conditions leading to 15 cholera outbreaks since January, with the most recent case being recorded on August 21. "Because there are no toilets, everyone must practice open defecation, so the ground water that is used for drinking water is being polluted and infected, and that is why we have seen so many cholera outbreaks," Dr Jagani said.

Most of the workers are forced to live in makeshift houses made of corrugated tin, with dirt floors and no running water. Officials from Majur Adhikar Manch - a registered workers union - have been repeatedly barred from entering the worksite. On one occasion in July a local newspaper photographed teams of local police officers preventing the union from holding an offsite meeting of workers demanding better wages. "Adani is close to [Prime Minister] Modi, and this is Modi's home state, so Adani can do whatever he wants," said one union official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Prior to becoming Prime Minister in May, Mr Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat for 12 years. In response to a series of questions regarding labour practices at Shantigram, an Adani Group spokesman said the company enjoyed "a very high reputation in all the markets where it operates". "For achieving this mega development project we have roped in India's most reputed first class construction companies to build the township," the spokesman said in a statement emailed to Fairfax Media.

"It is primarily their responsibility to recruit, manage and operate the construction workers. They have to comply with the required laws of the land, pay their workers strictly in compliance with the minimum wages act notified by the government and look after their well-being." Despite the high number of cholera outbreaks and no access to toilets, the company denied that its workplace was unhygienic, directly contradicting the report by the District Health Office. "We have found that our chosen construction companies employ industrial best practices and adhere to all the laws of the land. This is exemplified by the fact that there has been complete harmony in labour relations throughout the project execution to date and the project is progressing well." Loading Adani Group last week said it was seeking expressions of interest for up to 5000 construction jobs in Queensland.