Home / Cover Story / Oct 31- Nov 06, 2026 / COMMERCE MINISTER PIYUSH GOYAL, CA TO DB BUILDERS, AWARDED CONVENTION DEAL?
COMMERCE MINISTER PIYUSH GOYAL, CA TO DB BUILDERS, AWARDED CONVENTION DEAL?
No Comments on COMMERCE MINISTER PIYUSH GOYAL, CA TO DB BUILDERS, AWARDED CONVENTION DEAL?

COMMERCE MINISTER PIYUSH GOYAL, CA TO DB BUILDERS, AWARDED CONVENTION DEAL?

Cover Story, Oct 31- Nov 06, 2026 October 30, 2026 , by

It is the Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal who is reported to be the mastermind of the conversion of Bambolim into Balwa Nagar. It is on record that Piyush Goyal was paid a fee of Rs15 crore by DB Builders. DB Builders was also linked with Swan Telecom, which allegedly attempted to bribe the DMK government in Tamil Nadu wit Rs200 crore. DB Builders is a listed company whose shares have depreciated by over 75% in the last two decades. The Aldeia de Goa commercial and residential complex, the Bambolim Hyatt and the new Convention Centre are all promoted by DB Relators. Piyush Goel has admitted that he has been consultant by DB Realty but has denied any involvement in the 2G scam.

IT is not widely known that Vinod Goenka, Shahid Usman Balwa and Pascoal Trinidade are jointly connected with the three major properties in Bambolim. These include the Aldeia de Goa, the Bambolim Hyatt Hotel and the historical IT habitat which has been leased out to DB Realty, the company owned by Vivek Goenka and Shahid Usman Balwa. At a press conference held on Oct 26, Girish Chodankar, the president of the State Congress, revealed that the land which had been acquired more than 20 years ago in 2006 to set up a IT park had been leased for a token Rs108crore to DB Realty for setting up a convention center. Girish who raised questions over the 60 years lease insisted that the government stood to lose almost Rs5,000crore because the present market value of the property exceeds Rs5,104 crore. If the FAR for the property is increased to 300 percent the state government would stand to lose over10,000 crore. What Girish Chodankar failed to mention either out of ignorance or possible fear of provoking the Pramod Sawant government is the startling revelation that the Union CommerceMinister Piyush Goyal is professionally associated with DB Realty. The company which has been allotted the lease is Valor Estate Ltd which is a fully owned subsidiary of the DB Realty.
Incidentally, you need not waste your time on an engineering or a management degree to make it big in real estate. The biodata of Shahid Usman Balwa describes him as an undergraduate born on January 4, 1974. His main businesses include real estate, construction, urban development and hospitality.
Balwa and Goenka have a rather dubious record though no criminal convictions. Apparently, they first got together to promote a company called Swan Telecom. Swan was one of the many companies which had applied for allocation of telecom licenses. It may be recalled that the 2G spectrum allotment is historically more notorious due to the role of the infamous Radia who represented the then Telecom Minister Raja. Neerja Radia, then a rookie PR person is reported to have taken both Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani for a ride. Balwa and Goenka were accused of criminal wrongdoing in the case and spent approximately nine months in custody before obtaining bail. In December 2017 a special CBI court acquitted Balwa, Vinod Goenka and the other accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case.
Subequently, Balwa got involved along with Goenka in the Aldeia de Goa housing cum commercial projects in Bambolim. It is not widely known that the Grand Hyatt Hotel was part of the Aldeia de Goa project. We understand that it was my then neighbor Pascoal Trinadad, a former Gulfie, who felicitated the purchase of the property by Balwa and Goenka. It is the Goa Real Estate & Construction Ltd in which Goenka, Balwa and Pascoal are partners which developed the Aldeia de Goa residential complex and the Bambolim Grand Hyatt. Subsequently, there was a split and DB Realty acquired the hotel owning company through a share transaction. The company has faced several criminal cases including from the former president of Zuari Industries Ramon Modal. The former Zuari chief had alleged that the Goa Real Estate and Construction Ltd had commercialized large areas which were marked as open spaces in the original plan. There were also other litigations over access to the property.
 The original allotment by the then government owned Infotech Corporation of Goa was done in 2006-2007. The then IT Minister Dayanand Narvekar allotted 37 plots in the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat. The project was intended to develop Goa as a major IT hub. The government received 37 applications of which 19 were from IT firms and 18 from builders. The Controller and Auditor General noted that of them five IT firms and nine builders were allotted plots of land. Though the rules barred allotment of land to builders they were overruled by the minister. The CAG report adversely commented that some applications were rejected for incomplete documentation or missing project reports. A noted exception of a developer was who was allotted a plot without even applying for it was the brother-in-law of the IT minister Dayanand Narvekar. The land was also underpriced resulting in a loss of Rs590crore in lease rent over a period of 30 years.
The original 2006 terms set the premium at Rs4,600 per square meter. The plots were to be leased initially for 30 years with extensions possible up to 90 years. In the face of widespread protests and PILs filed by the Goa Foundation the project was abandoned. The allotments were cancelled.
Ironically, the government reportedly refunded Rs140crore inclusive of interest from the companies which had sought allocation of land.
The IT Habitat plan was abandoned and the government decided to set up a convention center and hospitality project to create a permanent venue for the international film festival of India. It is not known if the new lease agreement entered into with DB Realty is part of the project to find a permanent for IFFI in Goa. It is also not known whether any competitive tenders were floated and if the company controlled by Goenka and Balwa were the highest bidders. Hopefully, the Congress party will pursue the infirmities in the project and present a white paper on the manner in which the lease was granted and the huge loss to the government as projected by the president of the Congress party.

No related posts.

Search

Back to Top