Agra Industrial Smart City (IMC Agra): Connectivity — Airports, Expressways, Rail & Freight Corridors

Airports

Agra is served by Agra (Kheria) Airport, a civil enclave inside an active Indian Air Force base roughly 7 km from the city centre. The airport has one operational domestic terminal for civil aviation, with a current terminal area of 4,870 m2 and a capacity of 250 arrivals and 250 departures. It handled around 2,39,758 total passengers in 2024-25. Scheduled commercial services here have historically been limited and intermittent rather than a daily mainstay.

A major upgrade is under way but not yet complete. In September 2023 the UP cabinet cleared a ₹123 crore proposal to acquire 92.50 acres for civil-enclave expansion and upgrade the airport to international category, including a new 30,000 sqm terminal with nine bays for A321 aircraft and a runway extension. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for a new terminal in October 2024, with construction slated to begin in the second half of 2025 and completion targeted for late 2027 or the first half of 2028. A separate, smaller civil-terminal package at the new Dhanauli enclave has also been reported with a mid-2026 completion target, though this is distinct from the larger international-upgrade project.

For air cargo and business travel, IMC Agra's own promotional material points to Noida International Airport (Jewar). The upcoming Jewar Airport, located 140 kilometres away via the Yamuna Expressway, is expected to further boost air connectivity for high-value cargo and business travellers once it becomes operational — its own commissioning is a separate project outside NICDC's control.

Expressways and Highways

Road access is the strongest, already-operational leg of IMC Agra's connectivity. IMC Agra, spread across 1,058 acres along Agra's Inner Ring Road, is positioned between key junctions linking the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, offering seamless road connectivity. The site is strategically located along the Inner Ring Road, equidistant from two major cloverleaf junctions that link to Delhi NCR and the Agra-Lucknow Expressway — dividing the site into two accessible parts.

The proximity of IMC Agra to NH-19 and the Agra-Lucknow Expressway significantly eases road transportation. The site also draws on the wider Yamuna Expressway corridor (Delhi–Agra) for onward links toward NCR and Jewar. NICDC states the cluster is 205 km from Delhi NCR and 334 km from Lucknow by road. All of these expressways/highways are already operational; NICDC's role is limited to connecting the IMC site into this existing network via the Inner Ring Road junctions.

Rail and Dedicated Freight Corridors

Freight rail is central to IMC Agra's pitch. The cluster is positioned just 25 km from the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC). An earlier estimate had put this distance from the nearby New Tundla railway station specifically. Situated close to New Tundla Station, IMC Agra is positioned to connect with the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC). The site also enjoys enhanced connectivity with the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC).

The EDFC itself is a large, mostly-completed national project (commissioned in phases in preceding years) that runs broadly parallel to the Agra region, and the WDFC serves the Delhi–Mumbai corridor further west; both are already operational trunk freight lines, and the "connectivity" task for IMC Agra is the last-mile road/rail link from the cluster to a freight/rail siding, which is part of the trunk-infrastructure package now being built. For passenger rail, Agra city is on the main Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Chennai broad-gauge trunk routes and is served by the Gatimaan Express and Shatabdi services to New Delhi, both long-operational.

Metro and Urban Transit

Agra Metro is a separate UPMRCL project serving the city, not a purpose-built link to the IMC site, but it is relevant to workforce and last-mile mobility. Agra Metro's Priority Corridor — the 5.2 km Taj East Gate–Mankameshwar (Jama Masjid) section — was inaugurated in March 2024. The full network, comprising two lines and 28 stations over 29.40 km, is under construction, with Phase 1 expected to be completed in 2026. As of mid-2026, no metro or RRTS extension has been announced specifically toward the IMC Agra site on the Inner Ring Road; the existing and under-construction lines run through the old city and cantonment areas.

Waterways

Agra sits on the notified but largely undeveloped-for-cargo National Waterway 110 (NW-110) on the river Yamuna. The Yamuna, notified as NW-110, stretches 1,080 km from Delhi's Jagatpur to Prayagraj. IMC's own material flags this as a future option: IMC Agra is positioned near the proposed NW-110, with a cargo terminal at Samogar Mustakil just 1 km away, offering a potential alternative for cargo transportation. Current IWAI activity on this waterway near Agra has focused on passenger/tourist jetty infrastructure rather than freight: 12 floating jetties have been installed on the NW-110 Mathura-Vrindavan stretch in Uttar Pradesh. As of mid-2026, there is no operational cargo terminal serving IMC Agra on this waterway — it remains a proposed, not operational, link.

Internal Road Network and Trunk Infrastructure

Development of the site's own internal roads and trunk services is at an early-construction stage. A consultant has been appointed and detailed master planning, preliminary engineering and cost estimates completed for IMC Agra. The Shareholder Agreement between UPSIDA and NICDIT, and the State Support Agreement between the UP Government, UPSIDA and NICDIT, were executed on 8 November 2024, and the AKIC Integrated Manufacturing Cluster Agra-Prayagraj Ltd SPV was incorporated on 30 January 2025. A Letter of Award was issued by the SPV to the EPC contractor for trunk infrastructure works on 27 October 2025. One clearance-related item is still pending: approval for tree-felling permission within the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) is underway in the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Internal roads, drainage, water and power distribution inside the 1,058-acre boundary fall under this trunk-infrastructure contract and are therefore best classed as under construction, not yet operational, as of mid-2026.