K.P. Singh: Think like Edwin Lutyens

Referring to the English architect who designed colonial New Delhi, real estate baron K.P. Singh of DLF says visionary collaborations and urgent action plans are imperative to save our cities from falling into a deeper chaos

The distance between DLF Golf and Country Club, Gurugram, and West End Greens, a posh locality in South Delhi is 17 km and roughly takes 33 minutes on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway. But during a recent trip, when property baron K.P. Singh was caught in the labyrinthine traffic en route, the interminable delay on the four-lane highway gnawed at him. For, this was not quite how the man from Bulandshahr, who transformed erstwhile Gurgaon into the millennium city it is today, had envisioned it.

“It was meant to be a sprawling green organised metropolis and a blueprint for the future. Not just bricks and concrete. There’s been myopic thinking; our cities are crumbling under their own weight,” said the developer, who saw Gurgaon’s potential as a world class city three decades ago and scripted DLF’s success.

During a chat at his Aurangzeb Road residence in Delhi recently, Singh, 93, minced no words to express his frustration at the high-tech city besieged by drainage problems, flooding, traffic congestion, pollution and water shortage that collectively affected the quality of life.

Singh believes in living his life unapologetically. Known for taking prudent risks, in his book he pens down the challenges he navigated to transform DLF into a real estate giant. The book highlights his leadership skills and resilience in achieving success.

“Urban planning has to be done 100 years in advance with the town planners’ understanding of what citizens will require and want in future. The planning process is dictated by the people; cities should be able to stand up to scrutiny even decades later,” he said, citing the development of DLF Phase 5 in Gurugram, the first in India accredited with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) platinum certification, as an example of sustainable, dynamic and responsible living. But inside and outside the super luxury homes are two different worlds.

“The local master plan should be a legacy addressing critical imperatives that make cities robust enough to weather the storms of rapid urban evolution,” Singh asserted. Gurugram witnessed a wild building boom without a comprehensive master plan for the city’s development. While developers built the infrastructure inside their projects, the Haryana Urban Development Authority failed to match the unstoppable growth.

Singh changed the country’s landscape over the last three decades but the lack of a well-functioning citywide infrastructure reduced Gurugram to a city of pitfalls that now evokes discussions on how not to build a city.

“There is a need for a massive overhaul of government policies with trickle-down prosperity at the core. Private sector experts, planners with foresightedness and environmentalists should innovatively collaborate and think like Edwin Lutyens who planned New Delhi a century ago,” said Singh, who mostly spends his time overseas and was in the Capital to release his book Why the Heck Not, co-authored with Aparna Jain and published by Penguin Random House.

As Singh acknowledged that Gurugram remains a work in progress, his book talks about how he navigated policy and political challenges to redefine the language and business of real estate.

Much like his father-in-law, Chaudhary Raghavendra Singh, who established Delhi Land and Finance (DLF) in 1946 and transformed urban housing in the capital city anticipating the influx of migrants and a surge in demand for housing post-Independence, Singh also conceived turning the barren land in Haryana into thriving communities interspersed with green spaces where people could live with contentment.

Once a colony is built and equipped with roads, sewage, electricity and drainage, major upgrades for more space become impossible without pulling down the buildings. “Urban development planning is impacted when the government is short-sighted about managing the evolving urban demand,” Singh said.

In 1976, when the government brought in the ULCRA (Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act) to promote low-income housing and set limits in urban vacant land ownership, it pushed back private builders (like DLF). The law aimed at equitable land distribution received flak from citizens who had already invested in the urban land. Singh took over a dormant DLF to fight to secure exemptions for those who had invested in their plots and at the same time began studying the city’s limitations and mentally charting its growth till he found the Old-Gurgaon Road connecting the southern periphery of Delhi to Haryana, one of the few States that had not legislated the Urban Ceiling Act.

It marked a turning point because old Gurgaon was like an economic wasteland and there were hardly any takers. DLF took advantage of relaxed land acquisition laws and Singh envisioned resurrecting the company with the 30 acres it held there and subsequently went on a spree of acquiring land from patriarchal landowners and farmers in the region.

“I took some prudent risks, navigated policy and political challenges, created surplus and larger spaces in tune with emerging needs of the future,” said Singh who led DLF’s growth as a real estate giant and shaped the city’s growth trajectory focusing on building a self-sustained modern city with state-of-the-art residential complexes, commercial and recreational spaces.

Not many know that Singh, as international advisory board of multinational company General Electric, played an instrumental role in bringing GE to India by convincing its then CEO Jack Welch and business tycoons for further investments. Large BPO operations spurred development making Gurugram home to numerous Fortune 500 companies. Today, the cyber city contributes to 60% of Haryana’s tax revenue.

“With entrepreneurs driving growth today,” said Singh, “government bodies and public agencies have to work in tandem in off-site infrastructure development and keep track of progress toward sustainability, low carbon footprint, resilience and equity objectives. The shared responsibility of healthy development can no longer be ignored if we wish to leave behind a healthy atmosphere for future generations to grow.” he added.

Published - November 29, 2024 03:59 pm IST