GMADA Issues Final Notification to Acquire 196.44 Acres for Sector 87 Commercial Hub, Mohali

What was decided

The Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) has issued the final notification to acquire close to 197 acres (196.4438 acres, to be precise) of land spread across four villages on Mohali's southern edge, to build a brand-new commercial sector, Sector 87, envisioned as a retail, business and civic hub, much like the iconic Sector 17 of Chandigarh. Close to 196.4438 acres is being acquired: 157 kanal from Manak Majra, 891 kanal from Nanu Majra, 520 kanal from Sohana and 1 kanal 12 marla from Sambhalki.

The GMADA website's own land-acquisition listings confirm the corresponding procedural document: Acquisition of land setting up Commercial Infrastructure in Sector 87 at SAS Nagar, Hearing of Objections under Section 15.

How the notification got here

This final notification did not appear in isolation — it followed an earlier statutory stage. In an earlier notification, the department declared 196.4 acres in Manakmajra, Nanumajra, Sohana and Sambhalki villages as a resettlement area for setting up commercial infrastructure in Sector 87, Mohali; that notification was published in the Punjab Government Gazette and uploaded to the GMADA website on 9 March 2026. Landowners and other stakeholders were given 30 days from that point to submit objections.

The final notification was published in the Punjab Government Gazette and uploaded to the GMADA website following that earlier round of public notice and a hearing of objections under Section 15 of the land acquisition process; landowners in the affected villages had already been given the opportunity to raise objections and suggestions before this final call was made.

Compensation and rehabilitation on offer

Families can choose a one-time payment of Rs 5 lakh or an annuity option, along with developed plots in new sectors and other rehabilitation benefits as applicable — under the rehabilitation policy, eligible families can opt for developed plots in the newly planned sectors instead of, or alongside, monetary compensation. A related GMADA rehabilitation package for a comparable Mohali acquisition (Sector 103) set out a lump sum rate of Rs 5 lakh to each affected family and a resettlement allowance of Rs 50,000 only to the family whose livelihood is affected, with the acquiring body bearing the stamp duty and registration charges for land or houses allotted to the affected family.

The final notification itself does not fix a specific cash rate per acre for Sector 87; that is normally settled at the subsequent award stage. From the date the gazette notification is published, affected landowners get 30 days to file claims or objections with the Land Acquisition Collector (Urban Development) at PUDA Bhawan, Sector 62, Mohali — anyone with land under Change of Land Use category, or disputes over ownership, compensation amount or plot entitlement, needs to act within this window.

Why Sector 87, and why now

Sector 87 is one of the flagship pieces of a much larger urban-expansion drive around Mohali and New Chandigarh. In a major push for urban development, the Punjab Government gave the nod to acquire 6,285 acres of land to develop nine new sectors and complete pending development in five already-developed sectors in Mohali, with GMADA developing new sectors 84, 87, 103, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124 and part of 101. Sector 84 was designated as an institutional area, Sector 87 as commercial, Sectors 101 and 103 as industrial, while Sectors 120 to 124 and 76 to 80 were earmarked as residential pockets.

The commercial branding of Sector 87 has been consistent across official statements. Officials have described a vision in which "Sector 87 rises as Mohali's Sector 17" alongside a commercial Aerotropolis and a world-class New Chandigarh township. In planning circles, Sector 87 has long been discussed as Mohali's answer to Chandigarh's Sector 17 — a central commercial and civic core where courts, offices, retail and entertainment would sit within walking distance of each other.

By March 2026 this had scaled into an even larger drive. The state government set in motion the compulsory acquisition of 11,103 acres across Greater Mohali and New Chandigarh to build seven new townships, seven new sectors, three new pockets of Aerotropolis, and a brand-new commercial city centre in Sector 87 modelled on Chandigarh's Sector 17.

Location and what surrounds it

Sector 87 sits in the heart of Mohali's most active development corridor, adjoining the fully developed JLPL Sectors 90-91 on one side and the upcoming GMADA Sectors 88-89 on the other, with the district judicial complex in Sector 76 just across the road. A nearby property overview similarly notes the continued development of the Sector 87 City Centre as part of Mohali's overall administrative-hub status around the DAC.

Context: not without friction

GMADA's wider land-acquisition push in Greater Mohali has faced sustained resistance from landowners, and the compensation framework itself has been repeatedly revised. On 6 July 2026 the Punjab Government formally notified the third revision of its Land Pooling Policy in twelve months, amending a policy first issued in January 2021 and revised in November 2025, following an in-principle decision at an April high-level meeting that the Council of Ministers approved on 1 July. Under the revised policy, the commercial SCO component was increased from 200 to 210 square yards per acre, and the commercial land category entitlement was raised from 800 to 840 square yards per acre.

Separately, farmer opposition specific to Sector 87 land has been recorded: landowners of several Mohali villages, including Sohana, protested against a related land pooling policy for Aerotropolis Phase-2, with protesting landowners stating they would not give their land in Sector 87 to GMADA at any cost.

Practical effect for landowners and property watchers

The final notification moves Sector 87 from proposal to an active, legally-backed acquisition. Only after this stage can the award process, compensation disbursal and physical handover of land begin — understanding this sequence helps affected families know what to expect next, and helps property watchers gauge how far along a project really is. Once developed, Sector 87 is expected to anchor footfall and business activity for the surrounding residential sectors, the kind of infrastructure push that tends to lift property values in a ripple effect across nearby localities.

Mohali's growth pattern has typically run: government notification, then road and civic infrastructure, then residential development, then the commercial layer — a sequence Sectors 88 to 91 followed, and which now count among the most sought-after mid-segment addresses in the tricity.