Three bungalows shortlisted for Delhi CM’s official residence

Two of these residential bungalows are located along the DDU Marg in central Delhi and the third is located along Rajpur Road in Civil Lines, north Delhi

New Delhi

CM Rekha Gupta takes charge. (Arvind Yadav/HT Photo)

The Public Works Department (PWD) has shortlisted three residential accommodation options for Delhi’s latest chief minister Rekha Gupta, officials aware of the developments said.

Two of these residential bungalows are located along the DDU Marg in central Delhi—where the Delhi BJP office and the BJP national headquarters are located—and the third is located along Rajpur Road in Civil Lines, north Delhi. Officials said all of these have been shortlisted after undertaking repairs.

“These bungalows have been shortlisted from our residential pool but are not finalised yet. These will be offered to the new CM and she may visit the houses to finalise the one she seems fit. The finalised house will then be approved and allocated through the General Administration Department (GAD). We are not sure by when the CM will finalise the house,” a PWD official said on the condition of anonymity.

Earlier this week, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders insisted that the new CM will not reside at the 6, Flag Staff Road bungalow, which was the residence of Arvind Kejriwal during his tenure as the CM and was dubbed the “Sheesh Mahal” by the BJP to highlight alleged corruption in the run-up to the Delhi elections.

On Thursday, CM Gupta also confirmed she will not be moving into the “Sheesh Mahal”. She currently lives in her private residence in Shalimar Bagh, her home constituency.

Officials said that the three options are compliant with security measures under the Z-category cover that will be provided to the CM, but may be reviewed again on Friday. While former CM Atishi had Z-category security, no protocol was needed to be followed as she continued to stay at her private residence.

“The CM residence is usually equipped with the required security provisions but we did not need to ensure Z-category security arrangements in the past 10 years. There are specific criteria that we need to follow; like the number of entry and exits, an open congregation area for events (like a lawn), segregated residential and office space, segregated servant quarters etc,” the official said.