Jawahar Lal Nehru destroyed this company. But his grandson Rajiv Gandhi revived it and made it a real estate giant.
This is the story of DLF’s rise, fall, and rise again.
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If you visit areas like Cyberhub in Gurgaon, it feels like a city in any developed country.
Tall buildings, clean roads, luxury offices, and high-end cars dominate the landscape. But 40 years ago, this was farmland with no foreign companies.
So, what changed?
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Chaudhary Raghvendra Singh came from a wealthy family in undivided Punjab and worked in a well-paid government job. The political scene of India was fast evolving, and partition and independence were just months away.
And it changed everything.
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Raghvendra Singh understood that once India will be partitioned, lakhs of refugees would come to India from Pakistan. They would need land and houses to start their new lives. In 1946, he left his government job to start DLF (Delhi Land & Finance).
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In its first decade, DLF built around 22 colonies in Delhi. The list includes areas like Model Town, Rajouri Garden, Punjabi Bagh, South Extension, Kailash Colony, Greater Kailash, Hauz Khas, etc.
They had even bigger plans for Delhi!
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However, in 1957, the government passed the Delhi Development Act, which banned private companies from developing new colonies in Delhi and gave the role to government departments.
Overnight, DLF was almost dead
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While DLF was looking at a bleak future, the man who revived DLF was yet to join it. Kushal Pal Singh went to the UK. He studied engineering in London, fell in love, and planned to settle there.
But life had other plans.
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He returned to India, joined the Army in 1951, and later married the daughter of DLF’s founder, Chaudhary Raghvendra Singh. In 1960, Kushal Pal Singh’s father-in-law invited him to take control of DLF.
It was just the beginning!
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DLF was out of the real estate business & manufacturing motors and batteries. It partnered with America Universal Electric. DLF’s condition went from bad to worse. At one point, Kushal Pal Singh considered selling DLF for just ₹26 lakhs.
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But, Kushal Pal Singh noticed one interesting trend in Delhi’s history. Delhi always extends towards the South. It happened during the Mughals, the British Raj and after the partition.
But there was just one small problem.
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DLF can’t build anything inside Delhi. So, Kushal Pal Singh came up with the idea to build a new city in the south of Delhi, just outside Delhi’s border.
He narrowed down a place.
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It was Gurgaon. The place has many advantages. It was Close to Delhi, near the airport and has good roads and rail connectivity. But buying land and building a city from scratch isn’t easy.
He needed permits, connections, and political backing.
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In 1981, fate intervened. K P Singh was negotiating land deals in Gurgaon when Rajiv Gandhi’s jeep broke down nearby. Rajiv Gandhi sat near him while his driver was fixing the jeep.
Everyone's life was about to change.
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As they chatted, Singh pitched his dream of turning Gurgaon into a global city. Rajiv was hooked. He spoke to then Haryana CM Bhajan Lal, who fast-tracked permissions and changed land-use laws.
Finally, Singh had what he needed to turn Gurgaon into a reality.
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DLF launched its first project, DLF City, in the 1980s. It was just the beginning. In 1993, DLF launched Silver Oaks, the first high-rise in Gurgaon.
But, for the city to succeed, it needs businesses to come in.
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Kushal Pal Singh used his connection to convince Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of General Electric to set up its offshore unit in Gurgaon. The GE unit started in 1997 and later it became Genpact.
This was the start of a chain reaction.
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And then came Cyberhub in 2003—the crown jewel of Gurgaon. In 2008, DLF along with Enso Group and IL&FS started working on Gurgaon Rapid Metro, the first privately funded metro rail in the world.
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Today, Gurgaon is a hub for global MNCs, fancy restaurants, and corporate networking. DLF is the largest real estate company in India, worth ₹2.1 lakh crores. In 2020, Kushal Pal Singh became one of India’s richest people, worth ₹1.6 lakh crores.
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