GMADA Eco City-4 / Sector 87 Commercial City (Mohali–New Chandigarh Expansion): Land Acquisition

What is being acquired, and where

Eco City-4 is the fourth township tranche in New Chandigarh. On June 2, 2026, the state issued a notification under Section 4(1) of the LARR Act to compulsorily acquire 526.03 acres across four villages in Majri sub-tehsil of Kharar tehsil, Mohali district: Kartarpur, Kansala, Rajgarh, and Boothgarh.

Sector 87 Commercial City ('Mohali's Sector 17') is a separate, parallel project in the same overall expansion drive. The proposed new commercial Sector 87, along with the new industrial Sectors 101 and 103, covering a combined 509 acres, had progressed to the Section 11 stage after the mandatory social impact assessment was completed and cleared by the expert committee as of late March 2026. An earlier version of the plan had 524 acres for new Sectors 87 (commercial), 101 (partial) and 103 (industrial) in Mohali. A Section 15 objections hearing for Sector 87 was held on land acquisition for commercial infrastructure development in Sector 87, SAS Nagar, following a notification dated 09.03.2026, with affected parties able to submit objections in person or in writing.

Both projects sit inside a much larger drive. The state government has set in full motion the compulsory acquisition of a whopping 11,103 acres across Greater Mohali and New Chandigarh to build seven new townships, seven new sectors, three new pockets of Aerotropolis near the Chandigarh international airport, and a brand-new commercial city centre in Sector 87 Mohali modelled on Chandigarh's iconic Sector 17.

Acquisition model: statutory law, with an optional land-pooling route

The current round of acquisition — covering Eco City-4, Sector 87, and the rest of the 11,103-acre plan — runs under the standard central land acquisition law rather than the compulsory pooling model tried earlier. The current acquisition drive proceeds under the full statutory framework of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 — with mandatory social impact assessments, public hearings, transparency requirements, gazette notifications at each stage, objection mechanisms and compensation awards determined by law.

Farmers are not forced into taking developed plots. Every farmer affected by the ongoing acquisition proceedings across Greater Mohali and New Chandigarh has a free choice — opt for the land pooling policy and receive developed plots, or decline and take the statutory cash compensation determined under the LARR Act, 2013. This followed a scrapped compulsory version: the June 2025 plan proposed acquiring 6,285 acres in Mohali alone... entirely under the new compulsory land pooling route... facing the combined weight of political opposition, farmer agitation and judicial intervention, the state government withdrew the Land Pooling Policy-2025 entirely in August 2025. Punjab's current Land Pooling Policy was notified by the state's Department of Housing and Urban Development on November 21 last year, amending an earlier policy from January 2021.

Under the optional plot-entitlement route, landowners can take 1,000 sq yards of residential space and 200 sq yards of commercial space per acre of acquired land, or, if commercial is skipped, 1,600 sq yards of residential space per acre. In April 2026 this was enhanced further: residential plot entitlement raised to 1,630 sq yd/acre; commercial SCO to 210 sq yd/acre; oustee quota plots at scheme price for all farmers including cash compensees; Sahuliyat Certificate valid four years.

Compensation rates: what has actually been awarded (comparable projects)

Neither Eco City-4 nor Sector 87 has reached the compensation-award stage yet, so no per-acre rate exists for them as of July 2026. But three related awards in the same acquisition drive give a real, recent benchmark for what LARR compensation is currently running at in this belt:

Three compensation awards totalling ₹6,069 crore across 1,231 acres were declared — ₹3,690.32 crore for 716 acres of Eco City-3 in New Chandigarh, ₹446.22 crore for 206.39 acres of Aerotropolis Blocks A-D, and ₹1,932.38 crore for 309.30 acres of the low/high density township in New Chandigarh.

For Eco City-3 specifically, village-level rates varied widely: compensation of Rs 5.91 crore per acre has been awarded to landowners in Rasulpur, Rs 6.46 crore per acre to Salamatpur, Rs 6.40 crore per acre to Dhodemajra, Rs 4.99 crore per acre to Takipur, and lower rates applied elsewhere in the same award. Officials describe the wider trend as favourable to owners: average land values in the GMADA belt rose from approximately ₹5 crore per acre (pre-acquisition notifications) to around ₹8 crore per acre after the notifications were issued. GMADA also puts the combined value of a land-pooling plot package well above cash: the combined market value of these developed plots in a fully planned, serviced township is estimated by GMADA at nearly Rs 16 crore per acre.

Beyond the per-acre cash figure, affected owners also get non-cash benefits. Farmers will be provided with a convenience certificate, under which they will be eligible for exemption from stamp duty for registration, within two years, on the purchase of agricultural land anywhere in Punjab; farmers will also be entitled to an electricity connection for agricultural purposes and an annual subsistence allowance of Rs 25,000, plus compensation for trees, houses and other structures located on the acquired land.

Villages covered

• Eco City-4 (Mohali district, Kharar tehsil): 526.03 acres across four villages — Kartarpur, Kansala, Rajgarh, and Boothgarh. Note that Kartarpur, Kansala and Rajgarh also had land taken for the earlier Eco City-3 award, so for farmers in these villages, 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.
• Eco City-3 (for comparison, already awarded): 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) — nine villages in total.
• Sector 87 / 101 / 103 belt (SAS Nagar / Mohali district): Village-level detail for Sector 87 itself has not been reported; the parallel Sector 101 industrial park proceedings name village Dharali, and separate ongoing GMADA notices in the same district cover villages including Nadiayali and Manakpur Kalar.

Budget allocated

No standalone compensation budget has been publicly announced for Eco City-4 or Sector 87 specifically — both are still short of the award stage where a rupee figure would be fixed. For scale, the same overall drive has so far committed ₹6,069 crore across 1,231 acres to the three projects that have already been awarded (Eco City-3, Aerotropolis Blocks A–D, and the low/high-density township). If Eco City-4's 526 acres were compensated at rates similar to the neighbouring, already-awarded Eco City-3 villages, the outlay would run into several thousand crore rupees — but this is an inference from comparable rates, not a confirmed figure, and should not be treated as an official budget.

Disputes and farmer negotiations

The road to the current model was contentious. Protests erupted almost immediately after the June 2025 plan was reported: farmers from dozens of villages, backed by the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and even the BJP, took to the streets, and the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued an interim stay on the policy within weeks, leading the state to withdraw it entirely in August 2025.

Even after the switch to an optional model, grievances continued among some landowners already covered by the earlier awards. A section of farmers, arguing that plot entitlements were inadequate, the Sahuliyat Certificate window too short, oustee quota absent, and their villages condemned to infrastructure neglect, launched the Pucca Morcha, a permanent dharna and chain hunger strike outside GMADA headquarters at Sector 62 in Mohali. This was resolved shortly before Eco City-4 was notified: the move came immediately after the resolution of a three-week Pucca Morcha farmer protest, with the government having committed to a three-year development timeline and village infrastructure integration as concessions. The government's broader April 2026 response also raised plot entitlements and extended the Sahuliyat Certificate to four years, as noted above. Not all objections are settled by consensus, though — panchayat-level buy-in has been described as majority but not universal: the optional model gained wider acceptance, with a majority of affected village panchayats passing resolutions endorsing the acquisition, implying a minority did not endorse it.

Current stage, right now (July 2026)

Eco City-4 is at the very start of the legal process. Eco City 4 is at the very beginning of its legal acquisition journey. The Section 4(1) notification is the first step, triggering the Social Impact Assessment study. It also brings the affected parcels under acquisition proceedings, but it does not yet constitute a compensation award or transfer of possession. The full statutory sequence still lies ahead: the Social Impact Assessment, the public hearing, the Section 11 preliminary notification, the Section 19 declaration, the award of compensation, and finally physical possession. A launch offering plots to the public will not come until possession is taken and infrastructure development begins.

Sector 87 Commercial City is somewhat further along. It had cleared its Social Impact Assessment and reached the Section 11 preliminary notification stage by March 2026, and a Section 15 objections hearing was conducted on June 8, 2026 — meaning it is past SIA but still short of the Section 19 award and Section 30 compensation determination that would trigger possession.

For context, the neighbouring Eco City-3 project — which shares three villages with Eco City-4 — is already past the award stage: the land acquisition procedure is almost over, and tenders for development work are likely to be floated in the first quarter of 2026... the final launching of Eco-City 3 is likely to be initiated by the end of 2026.