7, Lok Kalyan Marg, formerly 7, Race Course Road, is the official residence and principal workplace of the Prime Minister of India. Situated on Lok Kalyan Marg, New Delhi, the official name of the Prime Minister's residence complex is Panchavati. It is spread over of land, comprising five bungalows in Lutyens' Delhi, built in the 1980s, which are the Prime Minister's office, residency zone and security establishment, including one occupied by Special Protection Group (SPG) and another being a guest house. However, even though there are 5 bungalows, they are collectively called 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. It does not house the Prime Minister's Office but has a conference room for informal meetings.
The entire Lok Kalyan Marg is closed to the public. Rajiv Gandhi was the first Prime Minister to reside at the former 7 Race Course Road in 1984. It does not house the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), which is located in the Seva Teerth of the Seva Teerth Complex, on Raisina Hill nearby Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, where the Cabinet Secretariat and National Security Council Secretariat functions. The nearest metro station is Lok Kalyan Marg metro station. When a new Prime Minister is nominated, their original house is given a security detail and the new office holder is then advised to move in the 7, Lok Kalyan Marg at the earliest possible date. The current resident of 10, Janpath is Former INC President, Sonia Gandhi.
After the assassination of Indira Gandhi at her 1, Safdarjung Road residence garden while going towards neighbouring 1, Akbar Road office for an interview on 31 October 1984, it was converted into the Indira Gandhi Memorial and Museum. Former Chief Justice of India Sudhi Ranjan Das had previously lived at this address before Indira Gandhi.
Rajiv Gandhi, her son and successor as prime minister, along with his wife Sonia Gandhi and children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, became the first occupant of the former 7, Race Course Road, in 1984.
When V. P. Singh became the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Urban Affairs designated 7, Race Course Road premises occupied by Rajiv Gandhi as the permanent residence and office of the Prime Minister of India to ensure that all successive prime ministers were allotted the same house on assuming office. A government notification on 30 May 1990, officially designated these bungalows as the official residence of Indian Prime Minister.
In the 1990s I. K. Gujral and some of his predecessors, used 7, Race Course Road as Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
The 14th and current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, chose 5, Race Course Road as his residence as the former 7, Race Course Road was being refurbished at that time, after his predecessor Manmohan Singh had vacated it. The former 7, Race Course Road was chosen as Modi's office.
Name
The residence was previously known as 7, Race Course Road, which changed to 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, following the renaming of the road on which the house is situated, in September 2016.
Construction
The bungalows of the 7 LKM were originally designed by Robert Tor Russell, who was part of British architect Edwin Lutyens’ team, when he was designing New Delhi in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Bungalows
thumb|PM Narendra Modi welcomes the King of Bhutan, 2017
The Prime Minister's residence was built in the 1980s. It does not have his office inside the house, but has a conference room for informal meetings. The Prime Minister's residence and office and security spread across five bungalows: Bungalow 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. This includes 5, Lok Kalyan Marg, the Private Residential Zone for the Prime Minister, though he primarily operates from 7, Lok Kalyan Marg.
Bungalow 1 is a helipad for the service of Prime Minister which is being used as so since September 2003.
Bungalow 3 which was earlier the residence of Dr. Manmohan Singh has now been converted into a guesthouse for Prime Minister's guests.
Bungalow 9 is occupied by the Special Protection Group (SPG) that guards the Prime Minister. A tunnel connects the Indian prime minister's residence to the Safdarjung Airport, where high-importance helicopters land. Constructed beyond Kemal Atatürk Marg, Golf Course and Safdarjung Tomb and then an overground drive to surface at the helicopter hangar at the airport, work on the tunnel began in 2010 and was completed by July 2014 and Modi was the first Prime Minister to use it.
Current prime minister Narendra Modi uses 5, LKM as his residence which has also been used as so by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Rajiv Gandhi.
Panchvati
In 2001, during the tenure of Vajpayee, a state-of-the-art auditorium was constructed at the cost of and was named as Panchvati, it has been named after the spot where Ram and Sita had built their hut during their exile. It is equipped for video conferencing and simultaneous translations. This can be modelled into 2–3 conference rooms and can also act as a banquet for a gathering of 200–340 people. This can be used as a cabinet meeting room and can also be arranged to form a theatre.
Security
While the Special Protection Group (SPG) is the primary agency in charge of the security, it is aided by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and the Delhi Police to provide three-rung security for the estate. There is only one entrance to 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, which is guarded by the SPG. Only those visitors whose names have been given to SPG by the prime minister's personal secretaries are allowed in. The rule applies to everybody, including the national security adviser, top bureaucrats, relatives and guests (barring close family) and visitors are expected to carry an identity card. No outside vehicle is allowed to go beyond the checkpoint and even high-profile visitors including cabinet ministers are required to park their official vehicles by the checkpoint. Special SPG vehicles are used to carry the guests from the checkpoint to the residential office of the Prime Minister. The only exception to this rule is for the SPG protectors themselves who are allowed to take the vehicle carrying them into the complex.