New Delhi:
The sprawling 3, Motilal Nehru Road bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi served for over 10 years as the retirement abode of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who died Thursday.
A spacious Type-VIII bungalow amid the three-acre plot, Mr Singh had moved to this address in the national capital after attending Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in May 2014.
Prime Minister Modi succeeded him as India’s prime minister and checked into 7 Race Course Road (now 7 Lok Kalyan Marg), the official residence of the prime minister, where Mr Singh stayed for 10 years.
Earlier, the four-bedroom bungalow was the official residence of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit who had vacated it after her party’s loss in the Delhi assembly elections. She died in 2019 at the age of 81.
After Ms Dikshit vacated the bungalow, the CPWD completely renovated and restored it by re-doing the flooring and pillars.
Mr Singh, being a former prime minister, had SPG protection along with his family.
The bungalow was home to about 40 full-grown trees, including peepul, arjun, goolar, marorfalli, jamun, neem, mango and seemal, which shelter about 60 species of birds and mammals, when Mr Singh, accompanied by his wife Gursharan Kaur had moved into this prime address in Lutyens’ Delhi.
The sprawling lawns of the property also provided shelter to a sizeable number of bats.
“Although no count has been taken, the bats could number more than 200,” a senior CPWD official who was involved in getting the house ready for Mr Singh and his family, had then said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
