KP Singh’s meteoric rise towards becoming one of India’s richest real estate developers and establishing one of its biggest real estate brands, has been nothing short of a fairytale story! Here are some interesting nuggets that you should know, including a chance encounter that may have transformed his fortunes.
Kushal Pal Singh or KP Singh of DLF Ltd does not require any introduction. He is today known as the visionary founder of one of India’s biggest real estate developers, one of its richest property tycoons and of course, the individual who envisioned and developed Gurgaon into a Millennium City. KP Singh left an army posting to join Delhi Land & Finance Limited in the year 1961. The company was then a smaller concern set up by KP Singh’s father-in-law. KP Singh finally retired as the DLF Chairman in 2020, handing over the country’s largest listed real estate firm to Rajiv, his son and heir.
Few know that KP Singh started his highly ambitious (and often regarded improbable) blueprint for developing real estate in Gurgaon, an erstwhile village on the outskirts of the National Capital from 1978. He was driven by a vision towards transforming this sleepy zone into a satellite city of the Capital akin to Singapore with its infrastructure and one that would draw global companies to set up shop in the area. He acquired a total of 3,500 acres for developing his showpiece venture, DLF City. As KP Singh has himself explained, the core idea was planning for the distant future with drainage, connectivity with the central highway, roads and all other basic infrastructure.
A Chance Encounter that Changed KP Singh’s Career Trajectory
A legendary story, as narrated by KP Singh himself several times, is when he had a chance meeting with none other than Rajiv Gandhi. In the early 1980s, when this meeting occurred, Rajiv Gandhi was the Congress General Secretary and his jeep suddenly broke down in the Gurgaon area. KP Singh helped him fix the jeep and when asked by Rajiv Gandhi as to what he was doing in the area, replied by stating that he was dreaming of a new city. Rajiv Gandhi was impressed by his vision and later became a close friend of KP Singh as well.
The meeting happened in a desolate area of Haryana close to the Qutub Minar as per KP Singh’s own accounts. He was considering a land parcel of 40 acres there for setting up what is today Gurgaon city. The jeep suddenly halted and Rajiv Gandhi exited, asking if a water can was available since the engine had overheated. He often took this route for reaching his farmhouse in Mehrauli. Along with sharing his vision, KP Singh also told Rajiv Gandhi all about how Government laws were hindering him from building this new city. Singh stated that DLF Ltd did not have any capital or sizable business at the time and the prospects were bleak for getting loans from banks.
They both sat in the area for almost 1 ½ hours and discussed the possibilities of building a world-class international city in Gurgaon. Rajiv Gandhi asked KP Singh to present his vision of Gurgaon to him and Arun Singh at his office in New Delhi. This led to several subsequent meetings and everyone was unanimous that Gurgaon should be developed into a model city with sizable participation from the private sector. Licenses were granted to developers while they were mandated to ensure benefits for the weaker societal sections from their projects. DLF Ltd received its very first license in April, 1981, for the development of 39.34 acres in all. In fact, KP Singh visited South Korea and Malaysia to draw inspiration and gain knowledge from their development methods before starting his Gurgaon venture. General Electric was one of the first big global companies that leased office space in DLF City in the 1990s. Other global companies also arrived as tenants of DLF Ltd including British Airways, American Express, Nestle, and IBM to name a few.
KP Singh was an engineering student in the UK and then served in the Indian Army. He eventually joined Chaudhary Raghavendra Singh’s company, DLF. He expanded the brand well beyond Gurgaon, developing residential projects, hotels, shopping malls and commercial spaces galore. He also supervised the DLF IPO in the year 2007. Another interesting story goes that KP Singh was about to sell his DLF stake for a meager amount of Rs. 26 lakh back in the year 1975. He narrates an incident in his autobiography, where he says that in January 1975, he was about to sign the form for transfer of shares of DLF. However, he ultimately resisted the decision and is today one of India’s richest developers and billionaires.
KP Singh also recounts how he was asked to rethink his decision by the financial advisor of the company back then, Y.S. Tayal. Today, he has reaped the rewards of his persistence and how!
Sometimes chance encounters and incidents are enough to shape fortunes, careers, lives and trajectories in ways that people do not realize then! Such is the magical and fascinating tale of India’s true-blue property baron, Kushal Pal Singh!
