NEWSPAKISTAN.TV EXCLUSIVE
DUBAI: Indian expat (10-year-Dubai Resident) Chairman of the Raj Sahni Group (RSG) International, Balwinder Singh Sahni was brought up in Kuwait where his parents migrated from Quetta in 1952.
Sahni’s business-career commenced alongside his early schooling as he helped his father in their family business of automotive spare parts in Kuwait.
In seventies RSG International was launched as a modest family business of Automotive Spare Parts. Later he got involved in the trade of car tyres that flourished. Still based in Kuwait RSG International spanned across the Middle East, USA and South Asia.
That venture grew into a progressive organization across sectors as diverse as automotive, real estate, industrial equipment, investments and property development.
Sahni probed and finally got involved in Dubai’s Real Estate sector in 1991 and over the years tremendous success and expertise in this industry gave him the confidence to venture into Property Development.
Even during the adverse times of recession he has safeguarded clients’ investments and delivered high returns. He has also been able to deliver the projects three months before the announced times.
RSG’s latest project, the Dhs450 million Qasr Sabah residential complex was completed in September 2015 ahead of time. And the next project is a new five-star hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road.
Fondly known as Abu Sabah, Balwinder Singh Sahni is a great admirer of the Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed. Lauding his love, sincerity and commitment for Dubai, Sahni said that due to the Ruler Sheikh Mohammed’s vision businesses progressed by leaps and bounds; fortunes of many millionaires transformed into billions.
Raj gives credit to his brother Mohinder Pal Singh Sahni for the tremendous progress that the company made.
Under the leadership of Balwinder Singh Sahni the organization has always ensured that social and environmental responsibilities were duly fulfilled.
Balwinder Singh Sahni loves numbers! The intensity of this passion (that eventually manifests his philanthropy) could be gauged by the fact that some two decades ago he had paid $300,000 for a rare Mobile number!
He spoke exclusively to NewsPakistan.TV vis-à-vis his recent acquisition of D-5 vehicle number plate in an auction conducted by Road and Transport Authority (RTA) here at JW Marriott Marquis Hotel for 33 million Dirhams. He said that while people were increasing the bids in their hundreds of thousands, he was raising the bids by a million Dirhams.
And why Dubai-5? “Numbers have a special role in my life. I have always liked numbers. And number 9 is a special number for me. I am a land-man as for the last two decades I am in land business. I have always made money in whichever land I have bought involving the number 9!
“Whichever deal I have done in my life involving 9 has proved to be money-making for me. It shouldn’t just be nine only; it could be for example 2+3+4 that makes 9! Whenever I have taken such deals I have printed money”.
And when he got that chance of getting D-5, he noticed that D is the fourth letter in the alphabet and add that to 5, it makes 9! “When I was going to the auction, people said it would go to 50million Dirhams. I said even if it goes to 100 million, it is mine”.
Though there were sixteen wannabe owners, who fought the bidding game very fiercely, Sahni emerged as the winner when the hammer hit down on the gavel. In an early such sitting Balwinder Singh Sahni has paid Dh1 million for another number plate.
In 2015 Balwinder Singh Sahni successfully bid on plate number 9 paying Dh24 million for Charity Shaikha Haya Initiative.
CHARITY: But it was not just bidding to acquire a rare plate. All the money raised at the RTA auction goes to charity.
Answering to a query about his passion for charity work he said: “My father expired in 2004. As a good son I thought that I should do something for my dad”.
Balwinder Sahni did a lot of brain storming in order to figure out what he could do so that his father’s soul could be in heaven: “Someone told me about a place in Amritsar (Punjab) called Pingalwara. I was told about a Charitable Society there that has been given a lot of land by Government”.
When I went here in 2005 I asked them what they had and what they were lacking. They told me that in India lots of old parents were thrown out of homes by their children. For them an old home was badly needed. They said if you have money and you want to do something for your father you can get a complex built for old people. When I asked how much it will cost they quoted a huge amount. I had the money and it was a 2-3-year project. I immediately signed the relevant papers and work on the complex started. It was completed in 2007 and has been named as Apna Ghar (Our Home)”.
When in 2007 his mother expired, Balwinder Sahni went back to Amritsar to ask was there anything he could do: “They said that they needed a TB hospital. So I got it built. In 2011 when the TB hospital was completed I asked them do you want anything else to be built. They informed me that the Charity had been given a land on which they wanted to build a hospital for deaf and dumb. Work on this project is on and it will be completed in a couple of months”, concluded Sahni with a content smile!
DUBAI: Balwinder Singh Sahni snapped with renowned Pakistani journalist G. M. Jamali (General Secretary PFUJ). 
DUBAI: Sahni pose for the lens with his wife Magdalena & kids, “My beautiful wife called me & told me, don’t come back home without getting the number!”
DUBAI: RTA auction’s highest bidder of all times Sahni snapped bidding for the fancy plate. 
DUBAI: Balvinder Singh Sahni is all smiles with his possession. 
DUBAI: Sahni’ s White Rolls-Royce Phantom (one of a collection of five RRs) bearing the D-5 number plate.
DUBAI: All the money generated through the auction of eighty number plates on the occasion will go to charity.
