Based on info obtained by PTI via an RTI question, the federal government spent Rs 547.68 crore on such works between 2014-15 and 2025-26 via the Central Public Works Division (CPWD), which executes the repairs, renovation and upkeep works.
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The info reveals that the annual invoice for 2025-26 was the very best since 2014, officers stated, attributing it to varied components, together with inflation in addition to the wear and tear and tear prices of the ageing constructions set in expansive grounds within the coronary heart of the capital.
CPWD officers have, through the years, pointed to upkeep challenges corresponding to seepage, termite infestation, ageing electrical techniques, plumbing issues and different repairs. Prior to now, there have additionally been plans, although by no means formally introduced, to raze and rebuild among the bungalows.
“These are principally 80-90-100-year-old bungalows. Some, although not all, had even turn out to be structurally unsafe and wanted to be upgraded,” an official stated.
Constructed as a part of the event of New Delhi because the imperial capital, the bungalow zone was developed between 1912 and 1930 and later tailored to be used by senior authorities functionaries after Independence. Moreover ministers, the bungalows are additionally occupied by members of Parliament, senior judges and high navy officers amongst others.Historian and writer Swapna Liddle advised PTI that Edwin Lutyens lent his identify to the Lutyens Bungalow Zone however himself designed solely the official bungalows situated inside the President’s Property, which surrounds the erstwhile Viceroy’s Home, now Rashtrapati Bhavan.
“Most of New Delhi’s colonial-era authorities bungalows had been designed by architects of the Public Works Division underneath the British administration,” stated Liddle, writer of “Connaught Place and the Making of New Delhi”.
“These bungalows mirrored the identical sample seen in residences that the British inbuilt Civil Traces in most Indian cities to accommodate their officers: a giant compound, with ancillary buildings for the employees other than the principle constructing. One such bungalow, at the moment occupied by House Minister Amit Shah on Krishna Menon Marg, as soon as housed Herbert Baker, the architect of the outdated Parliament Constructing and the North and South Blocks,” she added.
From 2014 to 2019, the ministers spent a mean of Rs 26.78 crore per 12 months on repairs and upgradation. The common annual spending doubled to just about Rs 50 crore from 2019 to 2024. In 2024-25, the spend was Rs 71.98 crore and final 12 months it was Rs 92.35 crore, in line with the RTI reply.
Whereas the knowledge was sought, the CPWD didn’t furnish knowledge on expenditure incurred throughout this era on the residences of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs who will not be ministers, or on the places of work of Union ministers and ministers of state.
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The Union council of ministers through the years has comprised round 70 to 72 Cupboard ministers and ministers of state. At Rs 92.35 crore within the final monetary 12 months, the price of repairs and renovation works out to a mean of Rs 1.2 crore per minister, although precise expenditure varies from residence to residence.
The year-wise expenditure stood at Rs 27.47 crore in 2014-15, Rs 29.57 crore in 2015-16, Rs 30.10 crore in 2016-17, Rs 23.34 crore in 2017-18, Rs 23.42 crore in 2018-19, Rs 26.37 crore in 2019-20, Rs 53.87 crore in 2020-21, Rs 40.84 crore in 2021-22, Rs 73.86 crore in 2022-23, Rs 54.52 crore in 2023-24, Rs 71.98 crore in 2024-25 and Rs 92.35 crore in 2025-26, reveals the RTI response.
A employees member of a Cupboard minister advised PTI on situation of anonymity that probably the most frequent calls for for restore and renovation principally concern electrical objects corresponding to followers, LED lights and plumbing work each few months, and changing ground tiles each few years.
Based on an RTI response in September 2009, between 2004 and 2009, a interval of 5 years, the federal government spent a cumulative Rs 93.50 crore on upkeep and renovation of bungalows allotted to Members of Parliament and Union ministers.
