BIDA to Acquire Additional 8,349 Acres Under Master Plan-2045; Agra-Gwalior Expressway to Extend to Jhansi

What was decided

At a Project Monitoring Group (PMG) review meeting held on Thursday, 4 December 2025 and chaired by Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary S.P. Goyal, officials decided that BIDA will acquire 8,349 acres of land as part of its Master Plan-2045 for the Bundelkhand region.

The Bundelkhand Industrial Development Authority (BIDA) will acquire 8,349 acres of land as part of its Master Plan-2045, aimed at boosting industrial development in the region, and the decision was reviewed during a Project Monitoring Group (PMG) meeting on Thursday, chaired by Chief Secretary SP Goyal. The same meeting confirmed that to enhance connectivity, the Agra-Gwalior Greenfield Expressway will also be extended to Jhansi.

Timeline and enforcement

Officials have been tasked with completing the land acquisition process by March next year, with monthly targets to ensure timely execution, and the Chief Secretary emphasised that all construction work must meet quality standards and that any obstacles should be removed immediately.

This 8,349-acre tranche sits within a larger, previously approved acquisition programme. Under Master Plan-2045, the Uttar Pradesh government has approved the acquisition of 56,600 acres of land for the large-scale industrial development of the Bundelkhand region, and around 22,000 acres, or nearly 40 per cent of the identified land, has already been acquired by BIDA as of early November 2025. BIDA's overall planning area is larger still: the BIDA Master Plan 2045 covers 253.33 km2, equivalent to 62,599.20 acres, across 33 villages in Jhansi tehsil, a total planning area distinct from the 56,662 acres approved for phased land acquisition and development.

Connectivity: expressway and rail

The expressway extension endorsed at the PMG meeting follows an earlier request from the state government. The Chief Minister had announced that the state government would request the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to extend the Agra–Gwalior Greenfield Expressway to connect with BIDA and Jhansi.

On rail connectivity, BIDA officials also stated that Indian Railways is conducting alignment work to integrate the Delhi-Chennai fourth railway line and a railway station within the BIDA region. Jhansi already sits on the historic Delhi-Chennai trunk route; Indian Railways' alignment work would add dedicated capacity and a station specifically serving the new industrial area.

Lalitpur Pharma Park review

The same PMG meeting also reviewed progress at the Lalitpur Pharma Park, a separate but linked Bundelkhand industrial project run by UPSIDA. A detailed review of the Lalitpur Pharma Park was conducted, with industrial plot allotments expected to commence on April 21, 2026. The park itself is a large, multi-phase project: Phase I spans 352.91 acres, dedicated to formulation units, bulk drugs, and common infrastructure, while Phase II, covering 1,465 acres, is under development, for which an Expression of Interest (EOI) has been floated.

Master Plan-2045: land-use context

Master Plan-2045 was approved by the BIDA board by October 2025. The Master Plan-2045 for the BIDA area has been approved, covering 253.33 sq. km with specific allocations for industrial (35.8 per cent), residential (15.2 per cent), commercial (1.5 per cent), mixed-use (5.1 per cent), and green (10.6 per cent) zones. Alongside the expressway and rail proposals, plans are also underway for a railway station, logistics park, IT park, truck terminal, and bus depot within the area.

Background: how BIDA got here

BIDA is a statutory body, not a private developer. It was constituted under the Uttar Pradesh Industrial Area Development Act, 1976 to plan, develop and regulate an integrated industrial and urban township in the Bundelkhand region, and operates under the administrative umbrella of the state's Department of Infrastructure and Industrial Development. The Uttar Pradesh cabinet approved the proposal to establish BIDA in 2023, and the Governor of Uttar Pradesh formally notified the BIDA area on 14 September 2023. The authority held its first board meeting on 4 January 2024 and its second on 28 June 2024.

The first acquisition tranche was smaller and more localised: in its initial phase, the project involved acquiring over 35,000 acres of land valued at more than Rs 60 billion across 33 revenue villages in the Jhansi district. By November 2025 the total programme had been scaled up, and the December decision to acquire a further 8,349 acres is the latest tranche within that expanded, 56,600-acre plan.

Practical effect

For landowners in the villages identified under Master Plan-2045, the decision means a fixed compensation and possession timeline: officials must complete acquisition of the 8,349 acres by March 2026, tracked against monthly targets, rather than an open-ended process. For investors, the linked infrastructure commitments — expressway extension to Jhansi, a fourth Delhi-Chennai rail line with a dedicated station, and near-term plot allotments at the Lalitpur Pharma Park — signal that connectivity works are being sequenced alongside land assembly rather than after it. As of December 2025, these are directives and monitored targets from a state-level review meeting, not yet completed infrastructure; readers should treat expressway extension and rail alignment as proposed/under-review until formal approvals (e.g., by NHAI or Indian Railways) and construction are separately confirmed.