Record Rs 92 crore spent on Union Ministers' Delhi homes repair in 2025-26: RTI

Annual spending on the renovation, furnishing and repair of the official residences of Union Ministers in Delhi's Lutyens bungalow zone rose to a record Rs 92.35 crore in 2025-26, more than three times the Rs 27.47 crore spent in 2014-15, according to information obtained by PTI through an RTI query.

The government spent Rs 547.68 crore on these works between 2014-15 and 2025-26 through the Central Public Works Department, which handles repairs, renovation and maintenance. Officials said the 2025-26 figure was the highest since 2014, citing inflation and the growing cost of maintaining ageing structures spread across large compounds in central Delhi.

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CPWD officials have over the years pointed to problems such as seepage, termite infestation, ageing electrical systems and plumbing faults. There have also been plans in the past, though never officially announced, to raze and rebuild some of the bungalows. "These are mostly 80-90-100-year-old bungalows. Some, though not all, had even become structurally unsafe and needed to be upgraded," an official said.

The bungalow zone was developed between 1912 and 1930 as part of the building of New Delhi as the imperial capital and was later adapted for senior government functionaries after Independence. Besides ministers, the bungalows are occupied by members of Parliament, senior judges and top military officers, among others.

Historian and author Swapna Liddle told PTI that Edwin Lutyens gave his name to the Lutyens Bungalow Zone but had designed only the official bungalows within the President's Estate around Rashtrapati Bhavan. "Most of New Delhi's colonial-era government bungalows were designed by architects of the Public Works Department under the British administration," said Liddle, author of "Connaught Place and the Making of New Delhi".

Liddle added, "These bungalows reflected the same pattern seen in residences that the British built in Civil Lines in most Indian cities to house their officials: a big compound, with ancillary buildings for the staff apart from the main building. One such bungalow, currently occupied by Home Minister Amit Shah on Krishna Menon Marg, once housed Herbert Baker, the architect of the old Parliament Building and the North and South Blocks."

From 2014 to 2019, ministers spent an average of Rs 26.78 crore a year on repairs and upgradation. The average annual spending then rose to nearly Rs 50 crore from 2019 to 2024. The spend was Rs 71.98 crore in 2024-25 and Rs 92.35 crore in 2025-26.

The RTI reply showed year-wise expenditure of 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. The CPWD did not provide data for expenditure on the residences of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs who are not ministers, or on the offices of Union ministers and ministers of state.

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The Union Council of Ministers has generally had around 70 to 72 Cabinet ministers and ministers of state. At Rs 92.35 crore in the last financial year, the average cost works out to about Rs 1.2 crore per minister, though the actual spending varies from one residence to another. A staff member of a Cabinet minister told PTI on condition of anonymity that the most frequent repair and renovation requests relate to electrical items such as fans and LED lights, plumbing work every few months, and replacement of floor tiles every few years.

An RTI response in September 2009 had said that between 2004 and 2009, the government spent a cumulative Rs 93.50 crore on the maintenance and renovation of bungalows allotted to MPs and Union ministers.

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