Construction Company Behind New MPs' Residential Complex Has a Gujarat Link, Tied to Modi's Dholera Dream

New Delhi: On August 11, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a new residential complex for Members of Parliament (MPs) on New Delhi’s prime avenue, Baba Kadak Singh Marg. News reports highlighted that the residential complex has four towers, named after four Indian rivers; each tower features 25 storeys and has a total of 184 flats meant for the MPs.

“…these flats are designed to be self-sufficient, especially for the lawmakers who crave for bungalows in Lutyens' Delhi,” stated Mint. 

The Press Information Bureau (PIB), in a press note issued on August 10, had said that these 5,000-square-feet flats “with full range of modern amenities” and high speed lifts would have space for their office as well as residence. 

“The development of the project was necessitated due to shortage of adequate housing for Members of Parliament. Owing to the limited availability of land, there has been a sustained emphasis on vertical housing developments aimed at optimising land use and minimising maintenance costs,” the PIB stated.

Though the government press release stayed away from quoting the cost of these flats, and which firm was assigned the contract, a Right to Information (RTI) reply from the Union urban development ministry on August 13 stated that the project was completed at a whopping cost of more than Rs 477 crores and 55 lakh – Rs 477,55,88,965, to be exact. 

Sharing the information of the ministry with The Wire, RTI applicant Ajay Basudev Bose said, “Each flat must have then cost the ministry a sum of Rs 2,59,54,287.” 

At a prime location in central Delhi, a 5,000 square feet flat for Rs 2.59 crore should not be eyebrow raising; that is, if it is not taken into account that the prime real estate came for free to the construction company from the government. 

As per the RTI reply, the firm that carried out the construction of these towers for the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is Sam India LLP. 

Mapping Sam India LLP

A quick look at Sam India LLP’s website shows that the company has won contracts for quite a few central government projects. 

This includes Aqua line Delhi Metro stations for Rs 418.60 crore; Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) staff quarters at Sector 50, Noida, for Rs 171 crore; DMRC’s Ashok Vihar extension work on Magenta Line in 2020 for over Rs 755 crore; Tyagaraj Delhi CPWD for Rs 256 crore; besides carrying out construction of the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India, a Union government enterprise, in Mumbai for Rs 71 crore; a data centre for the government-owned Punjab National Bank in Gurgaon for Rs 327.70 crore; and a depot-cum-workshop for the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation. 

Named Sam (India) Infrastructure Pvt Ltd when it started in 2007, the company changed its name to Sam (India) LLP later. Its website says that in December 2020, the company was “brought under control” of Madan Lal, its chairman and designated partner.  Sam Infra had also won the Delhi government’s construction contract for the Delhi Technological University at Rohini. 

This August, the company’s sister concern, Sam India Builtwell Pvt Ltd, also won the DMRC’s contract to construct the YugeYugeen Bharat underground metro station which would come up on the 9.9-km-long Indraprastha-R.K. Ashram Marg corridor in its Phase 5A project. 

Madan Lal was its whole-time director in 2020, as per business research platform Zauba Corp.

The Gujarat connection

A close look at companies linked to Madan Lal and his immediate family shows that his sons, Shubham Garg and Nitin Garg, run another construction firm called Garg Realty Group. It is in this website that a viewer gets to know the full name of Madan Lal as Madan Lal Garg. It says that Garg Realty Group too was started by Lal in 2007 as Garg Properties. 

In July, the Gurgaon-based Garg Realty Group pledged Rs 400 crore to be spent over the next three years towards Prime Minister Modi’s dream project in his home state of Gujarat, the Dholera project. 

According to news reports, the construction company “has already invested in 20-22 acres of land in the region (in Gujarat) and, with this new capital, plans to acquire additional land to cater to Dholera’s rising demand for industrial, commercial, and residential infrastructure.”

Projected by the Union government as the first smart city and the first planned greenfield city, the Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) is being promoted as a “global investment hub” by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the centre, keeping in mind Modi’s dream as Gujarat chief minister to turn his state into an “industrial powerhouse”. 

No wonder then, the Dholera Smart City website dedicates an entire page on “Why is Dholera Project Important for Narendra Modi”. Over the years, thousands of crores of central funds have been directed towards creating Dholera. This July, the PIB, in a press release, said that partnership between India and Japan “advances with focus on semi-conductor, smart city investment in Dholera”. 

As per news reports, besides the latest announcement to invest in Dholera, the Garg Realty Group had also “executed three (other) projects in Gujarat, ie. Orchid Garden on Pipli-Fedara Road, Sukkoon Retreat in Ratanpur, and Sukkoon City in Kasindra”.

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