GMADA Issues Section 4(1) Notification for Eco City-4: 526.03 Acres Across Four Villages

What was decided

The Punjab government issued a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) notification under Section 4(1) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013, to compulsorily acquire land for a new residential township called Eco City-4. The Punjab government has set in motion land acquisition proceedings for yet another new residential township in New Chandigarh, issuing a Social Impact Assessment notification on June 2 for the compulsory acquisition of 526.03 acres of land across four villages — Kartarpur, Kansala, Rajgarh and Boothgarh — in Majri sub-tehsil under Kharar tehsil of Mohali district, for the development of the Eco City-4 residential project.

The notification has been issued under Section 4(1) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, by Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, Vikas Garg. The project has been entrusted to the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), a special development authority constituted by the Punjab Government for planned development of New Chandigarh.

Area covered, village by village

The proposed acquisition covers 172.75 acres in Kartarpur, 183.59 acres in Kansala, 9.90 acres in Rajgarh, and 159.79 acres in Boothgarh, as per the approved Master Plan of New Chandigarh dated December 28, 2015.

Three of these four villages are not new to GMADA's acquisition rolls. Three of the four Eco City 4 villages, namely Kartarpur, Kansala, and Rajgarh, also appear in the Eco City 3 acquisition from December 2025; Punjab's revenue villages are large, with hundreds of khasra numbers, and GMADA acquires specific khasra numbers within a village, not the entire village — what is being acquired for Eco City 4 is a different set of parcels, plus the new addition of Boothgarh, which was not part of Eco City 3. For farmers in these villages, the practical implication is that different family members may have land in different acquisition tranches, some already under the Eco City 3 award, others now notified under Eco City 4.

Legal basis and procedure

The notification states that since the project falls under Section 2(1)(e) — planned development — the mandatory consent of gram sabhas or landowners under Section 2(2) of the Act is not required, though the entire Social Impact Assessment will be carried out in full consultation with the concerned panchayats and landowners, and the SIA study will produce a Social Impact Assessment Report and a Social Impact Management Plan, made available in the local language and uploaded on the department's website.

It marks the formal first step in the statutory land acquisition process — triggering a Social Impact Assessment study that must be completed within six months, to be followed by further notifications and ultimately a compensation award. No Section 11 declaration, Section 19 possession order, or Section 30 compensation award has been issued for Eco City-4 as of this notification.

Why now: the farmer-protest backdrop

The notification followed the resolution of a land-acquisition dispute connected to GMADA's other New Chandigarh projects. Residual grievances among a section of farmers led to a Pucca Morcha — a three-week-long permanent dharna and chain hunger strike outside GMADA headquarters at Sector 62, Mohali — which ended recently after the government agreed to a further enhanced package of benefits.

The government also committed to completing all development works within three years of award and possession, and to integrating village sewerage, water, and road infrastructure with GMADA systems. With those concessions in place and the Pucca Morcha called off, the state moved quickly to add Eco City 4 to its acquisition pipeline.

Separately, on the land-pooling policy that shaped the political climate: the state returned in November 2025 with a revised, optional Land Pooling Policy, offering farmers a free choice between developed plots under the policy or statutory cash compensation, and the optional model gained wider acceptance, with a majority of affected village panchayats passing resolutions endorsing the acquisition.

Where Eco City-4 sits in GMADA's wider New Chandigarh pipeline

The four names in this record — Eco City-4, the New Chandigarh Aerotropolis expansion, and the Sector 87 commercial city — refer to distinct but related components of the same GMADA New Chandigarh growth push, not a single project. Each has its own notification track:

• Eco City-4: 526.03 acres, Section 4(1)/SIA stage only (this notification).
• Eco City-3: an award has been announced covering Kansala (169 acres), Kartarpur (93.6 acres), Rajgarh (42.1 acres), Takipur (317.3 acres), Hoshiarpur (59 acres), Rasulpur (2.06 acres), Dhodemajra (0.3 acre), Majra (6 acres) and Salamatpur (6.7 acres). The 716-acre Eco City-3 in New Chandigarh — covering nine villages including Kartarpur, Kansala and Rajgarh — has already seen its compensation award declared at Rs 3,690.32 crore.
• Aerotropolis Blocks E–J: the largest single project in the existing plan — the 3,535-acre Aerotropolis Blocks E, F, G, H, I and J — a Section 19 declaration has already been issued, with a compensation award under Section 30 imminent.
• Sector 87 commercial city and Sectors 101/103 industrial parks: for the new commercial Sector 87, modelled on Chandigarh's iconic Sector 17, and the industrial Sectors 101 and 103, Section 11 notifications have been issued post-SIA.

Taken together, with Eco City-4 now entering the pipeline, the state is effectively extending its residential township belt deeper into New Chandigarh, pushing the total land under acquisition or proposed for acquisition in the region beyond 11,600 acres. The Tribune's headline framed this as the eighth new project added to Greater Mohali urbanisation drive already spanning 11,103 acres before this notification.

What this notification does NOT mean

This is a preliminary statutory step, not a project launch. There is no confirmed compensation rate, no plot allotment scheme, and no public booking window for Eco City-4 at this stage. Based on the Eco City-3 precedent — where the process ran from an earlier SIA stage through to a compensation award only in December 2025, with a public launch still pending — the gap between a Section 4(1) notification and an actual plot launch is typically measured in years.

Anyone marketing "pre-launch bookings," "advance registration," or guaranteed allotment for Eco City-4 is not offering an official GMADA product; no such scheme exists as of this notification.

What happens next

• Completion of the Social Impact Assessment study (statutory deadline: within six months of the June 2, 2026 notification).
• Publication of the SIA Report and Social Impact Management Plan in local language on the department's website.
• A subsequent Section 11 declaration/preliminary notification, following the pattern already used for Sector 87 and Sectors 101/103.
• Eventually, a Section 19 possession declaration and a Section 30 compensation award — the stage Eco City-3 reached in December 2025, roughly a decade after that project was first conceived.
• Only after possession and initial infrastructure works would a plot-allotment scheme for Eco City-4 be expected to open.