- Sobha Singh (builder)
Sir Sobha Singh (1890-1978) was a civil contractor and a prominent builder of
Lutyens' Delhi andreal estate owner ofDelhi [ [http://www.forbes.com/business/global/2007/0702/072b.html Lutyens' Legacy] "Forbes ",February 7 ,2007 .] .Early life
Sobha Singh was born in 1890, in the village of
Hadali in Khushab,Sargodha District - then part of British India (now Pakistan). He was was the elder of the two sons ofSujan Singh and Lakshmi Devi, the younger one beingUjjal Singh , who was aMember of Parliament in India from the state of Punjab.After a few years at school in Amritsar, he joined his father's business of civil construction dealing in the laying of railway tracks and the digging of tunnels.
Career
When Lord Hardinge, the
Viceroy of India , announced the plan to move the British capital to Delhi was along with the Coronation Durbar for King George V and the Queen Mary, would take place in Delhi in December 1911, Sujan Singh and 22-year old Sobha Singh, who was then a contractor working on theKalka -Shimla railroad, shifted base to Delhi as building contractors. Building contracts then being given out. Sujan Singh-Sobha Singh were accepted as senior-grade contractors. Plans for the new city were drawn immediately after the Coronation Durbar.The Foundation stones had been laid by the King and Queen. After this the architects,
Edwin Lutyens andHerbert Baker wanted to change the site from where the foundation stones had been laid toRaisina hill and the village of Malcha. Sobha Singh had the foundation stones removed during the night and then take them 11 km across the city and replant them on the new site. The construction of the plans were taken up after World War I (1916-18).For the
South Block and War Memorial Arch ( nowIndia Gate ), Sobha Singh was the sole builder. He also worked on some parts of the Viceregal House (nowRashtrapati Bhavan ) andVijaya Chowk .Sobha Singh bought as much land in Delhi as he could. He bought several extensive sites at as little as Rs 2 per square yard, freehold. There were few other takers, and he came to be described as "adhi dilli da malik" (the owner of half of Delhi) [ [http://www.delhilive.com/page/who-built-new-delhi-200802132209 Who built New Delhi?] "www.delhilive.com",
February 13 ,2008 .] . He constructed many residential and commercial buildings, including the Connaught Place market complex [ [http://www.indiaprofile.com/heritage/cp-delhi.htm Connaught Place] ] , as well as the Chelmsford, A.I.F.A.C.'s Hall, Broadcasting House (All India Radio ), The National Museum,Dyal Singh College , T.B.Hospital,Modern School , Deaf and Dumb School, Red Cross Buildings andBaroda House . Outside Delhi, he built the High Court and Government Medical College at Nagpur and the Pasteur Institute at Kasauli.Sobha Singh was a person of modest education but his success as a builder made him one of the wealthiest persons of Delhi; also, a prominent member of the social elite. He also became the first
lndia n president of theNew Delhi Municipal Council and held the post four times, in 1938, 1942, and 1945-46 [ [http://www.ndmc.gov.in/AboutNDMC/Ex_History.aspx Ex-Presidents] "New Delhi Municipal Council ".] . He was knighted by the government and appointed a member of the Council of States.Legacy
Sir Sobha Singh left a large part of his private estate to a charitable trust, "The Sobha Singh Trust", which maintains homes and hospices for the terminally ill and aged all over the country, most recently it built, a
dharamsala , within theGuru Teg Bahadur Hospital complex, inNew Delhi in 2005 [ [http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=124461 Caring for the care-givers] "Indian Express ",April 10 ,2005 .]He also presided over some of the institutions funded by it like the Deaf and Dumb School and the Modern School. Among his last grants was one for
Bhagat Puran Singh 'sPingalwara home for the destitute in Amritsar.In 2006,
India International Centre (IIC) organized the first "Sir Sobha Singh Memorial Lectures", in which the inaugural lecture titled, ‘My father, the builder’, was given by his son, writerKhushwant Singh [ [http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060723/edit.htm#6 Back to the glorious past] by Humra Quraishi,The Tribune ",July 23 ,2006 .] .Personal life
The younger brother of Sobha Singh, Ujjal Singh (1895-1983), later became a parliamentarian, and
Governor of Tamil Nadu (1966-71) [http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Sardar_Ujjal_Singh Sardar Ujjal Singh] ] .Sir Sobha Singh had four sons and a daughter by his wife, Bhagwant Singh,
Khushwant Singh (journalist, and author), Major Gurbakash Singh and Daljit Singh [ [http://www.taxmann.com/DitTaxmann/IncomeTaxActs/2006ITAct/%5B1960%5D038ITR0436(Punj)(DB).htm Sir Sobha Singh and his four sons] ] , andLady Varyam Kaur . Sir Sobha Singh died inDelhi on 18 April 1978.References
* [http://allaboutsikhs.com/person/sirsobhasingh.htm Sir Sobha Singh] allaboutsikhs.com
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