In a region where large-scale private development has often been the exception, Merlin Group has grown into one of Eastern India’s most substantial real estate names. Behind that growth is the patience, discipline and ambition of Sushil Mohta.
There is a particular kind of builder for whom scale is never the goal in itself. Not the ones who chase size for its own sake, but the ones who build one good project after another, earn trust with each, and look up one day to find that the footprint they have created is larger than almost anyone expected.
Sushil Mohta, Founder and Chairman of Merlin Group, is that kind of builder. The journey that took Merlin from a young Kolkata developer to a group with about 40 million square feet under active development is a story that deserves to be told far more widely than it currently is.
Forty million square feet is not a small or simple number. It represents homes, offices, shopping destinations and hospitality projects under construction at the same time, across multiple cities, each with its own approvals, partners, customers and deadlines. Reportedly, around 30 million square feet of that pipeline sits in Kolkata and the region around it, which says a great deal about where Merlin’s roots and its confidence lie.
It began in 1984, when Mohta founded the company in Kolkata. At the time, the idea of a branded, professionally managed developer building at scale in Eastern India was still taking shape. Starting a company in that environment meant earning every bit of credibility from the ground up, one project and one customer at a time.
Mohta approached that challenge with a clear conviction. The goal was never simply to build more, but to build better, to deliver global standards of quality in every project and to let that reputation do the work that advertising never could. That principle has remained the foundation of the group’s growth for more than four decades.
The early decades were about breadth as much as size. Merlin developed premium housing and essential housing, country homes and bungalows, and the group reports more than 50 residential and commercial complexes and some 150 independent bungalows to its name. Each completed project added to a reputation, and each reputation made the next, larger project possible.
Over time, the portfolio widened well beyond housing. Merlin moved into speciality retail, townships, studio apartments, hotels, resorts, and sports and entertainment hubs, as well as office towers and IT buildings. Every new format was a step in the growth story, an indication that the group was prepared to take on a more complex challenge than the one before it.
Kolkata remained the anchor throughout. Mohta is a Partner-Director of South City Group and sits on the boards of two of the city’s best-known malls, South City and Acropolis. Being closely involved with destinations of that stature gave Merlin something no balance sheet can supply: a deep, practical understanding of how a modern city shops, meets and spends its time.
Growth of this kind also depends on the health of the industry around it. Mohta is a founder member of CREDAI India, the national umbrella body of real estate developers, and has served as President of CREDAI West Bengal. Helping shape the standards and credibility of the sector was never separate from building Merlin. It was part of the same long-term thinking.
Behind the scale is an enormous amount of unglamorous work. Keeping tens of millions of square feet moving at once requires coordinating land, approvals, architects, contractors, financiers and buyers across timelines that run for years. A pipeline of that size is not a single achievement. It is the result of thousands of decisions made well, repeatedly, by people who trust the organisation they work for.
The next chapter has taken Merlin beyond its home city. The group has expanded into Pune, where its operations reportedly have around 4 million square feet under development, and into Chennai, while building on its presence in Kolkata. Moving into new markets is one of the hardest things a regional developer can attempt, and Merlin has approached it with the same patience that defined its early years.
The ambition is considerable. Merlin has reportedly outlined projects worth about ₹20,000 crore, against current annual revenue of roughly ₹1,500 crore, with a growing focus on hospitality alongside residential and commercial development. Plans of that scale are not made by a company that has stopped asking what comes next.
Carrying that ambition forward is a second generation. Saket Mohta, Sushil Mohta’s son, serves as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, leading day-to-day operations and the group’s pan-India expansion. It is a succession that says something about the institution Mohta has built: a company designed to outgrow its founder, with the culture and structure to keep doing so.
It is worth pausing to consider what this growth represents as a broader statement about private enterprise in Eastern India. The region’s business story is too often told through what it has lacked. Merlin Group, built in Kolkata and now building across the country, is a powerful counterargument.
For the next generation of Indian entrepreneurs trying to understand what durable growth looks like, Mohta’s story offers something important and rare. It offers a model that combines commercial discipline with a respect for quality, expansion with restraint, and personal ambition with a genuine investment in the cities and the industry he serves.
How Sushil Mohta took Merlin Group from a Kolkata developer to a company with 40 million square feet under development is ultimately a story about what happens when a founder refuses to treat his starting point as his ceiling. He saw a growing city and a broader country, and then did the patient, demanding work of building toward both, one project at a time.
Leave a Reply