GMADA Eco City-4 / New Chandigarh Urban Expansion: Master Plan Explained

Planning Horizon and Total Planned Area

Eco City-4 sits inside the umbrella GMADA Master Plan, prepared for the whole Greater Mohali area with a New Chandigarh (Mullanpur) component running to 2031. The Mohali SAS Nagar GMADA master plan was prepared for the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority by Jurong Consultants, and covers zoning for the entire local planning area. Separately, the Punjab Government notified a 'GMADA Regional Plan 2056' covering 1,021 sq km, built around seven Integrated Economic Hubs intended to drive economic growth well beyond the 2031 horizon.

The New Chandigarh component specifically covers a large area: the New Chandigarh Master Plan 2031 is a plan for roughly 6,123.7 hectares of land, with planning studies on land use, environment and infrastructure begun by GMADA in 2010. This 6,123.7-hectare figure is the total planned area under the horizon plan — it is not the same as the area actually developed or allotted at any given date, which remains far smaller (see phases below).

What Eco City-4 Is, and What Stage It's At

Eco City-4 is the newest residential tranche in the New Chandigarh Eco City series. The Punjab government issued a Social Impact Assessment notification on June 2, 2026, 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 was issued under Section 4(1) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, by the Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, Vikas Garg.

This is an early legal step, not a launch. 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. Investors should note: no public launch is possible for years and no authorised pre-booking exists at this stage.

The notification followed the resolution of farmer opposition on the adjoining Eco City-3 tranche. The government 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 as part of that settlement — a commitment now extended to Eco City-4's affected villages, three of which (Kartarpur, Kansala, Rajgarh) also appeared in the earlier Eco City-3 notification.

Land-Use Split (New Chandigarh Master Plan)

GMADA's published master plan figures for New Chandigarh describe a low-density, green-heavy layout rather than a dense urban grid. The master plan allocates approximately 27% of the total area to residential use and about 33% to green spaces, parks and PLPA (Punjab Land Preservation Act) land — a share the plan itself frames as unusually high for an Indian township project. Separately, the total area under recreation, park and open space is about 900 hectares, including 250 hectares for tourism, with a sizable southwestern parcel earmarked for a stadium, golf courses and horse-riding grounds. The remaining share of land (institutional, commercial, industrial, and infrastructure/roads) is not broken out with a single documented percentage in available public sources, so it is omitted here rather than estimated.

Phased Rollout: Eco City 1 through 4

Eco City-4 is the fourth tranche of a residential scheme that GMADA has rolled out incrementally since 2011, rather than a single planned phase-1/phase-2/phase-3 layout inside one project boundary.

• Eco City-1 — developed on an area of 400 acres, acquired under 100% Land Pooling; external and internal infrastructure worth ₹275 crore was completed, and the township is now liveable.
• Eco City-2 — developed on around 387 acres in the Hoshiarpur and Takipur villages. Together, Eco City-1 and 2 carved out 4,386 residential plots, of which 3,724 have been allotted.
• Eco City-3 — 716 acres acquired from nine villages — Kansala, Kartarpur, Rajgarh, Takipur, Hoshiarpur, Rasulpur, Dhodemajra, Majra, and Salamatpur — with total compensation of ₹3,690 crore, rates touching ₹6.46 crore per acre in some villages. Compensation award declared December 2025; infrastructure development pending; launch expected later in 2026.
• Eco City-4 — 526.03 acres across Kartarpur, Kansala, Rajgarh and Boothgarh; Section 4(1) notification issued June 2, 2026. No target completion year has been officially published; the government has committed to a three-year development timeline counted from the eventual award and possession, not from the notification date.

How Eco City-4 Fits the Larger Regional Expansion

Eco City-4 is one strand of a much larger acquisition drive across Greater Mohali and New Chandigarh together. 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. With Eco City-4 added, the total land under acquisition or proposed for acquisition in the region has been pushed beyond 11,600 acres.

Parallel schemes in this pipeline include:

• Sector 87 commercial city — the proposed new commercial Sector 87, planned on the pattern of Chandigarh's Sector 17, has progressed to the Section 11 stage after the mandatory social impact assessment was completed and cleared.
• Industrial Sectors 101 and 103 — for the Industrial Park in Sector 101 (488 acres) and the commercial pockets of Sectors 85, 86 and 88 (76 acres), Section 4(1) notifications have already been issued.
• Aerotropolis Blocks A–D — covering 1,651 acres in Mohali, compensation awards have already been announced at over ₹19 crore per acre.
• Aerotropolis Blocks E–J — the largest single project in the plan, 3,535 acres, with a Section 19 declaration already issued and a compensation award under Section 30 imminent.
• Master plan roads — 1,240 acres committed just for master plan roads across Mohali and New Chandigarh.

These Mohali-side schemes (Sector 87, Aerotropolis, industrial sectors) sit outside the core 6,123.7-hectare New Chandigarh planning area and fall under GMADA's wider regional acquisition programme, distinct from — but administratively parallel to — the Eco City tranches inside New Chandigarh.

Population and Employment Targets

GMADA's stated long-term vision for New Chandigarh is a self-sufficient, low-density counter-magnet to Chandigarh city. New Chandigarh has been envisioned as a self-sustaining, medium-density settlement designed to house up to 4,00,000 residents eventually, while preserving the natural environment. No separate, sourced employment target specific to Eco City-4 or the New Chandigarh plan was found in current public material; any such figure should be treated as unconfirmed until GMADA publishes one.

Where to Find the Official Plan Documents

GMADA publishes master plan documents and public notices directly on its own site. The relevant official pages (as of July 2026) are:

• GMADA Master Plans index: gmada.gov.in/en/information/master-plans
• New Chandigarh (2008–2031) master plan page: gmada.gov.in — New Chandigarh (2008-2031)
• New Chandigarh plan PDF: gmada.gov.in/sites/default/files/new_chandigarh_plan.pdf
• Eco City-4 project notification page: gmada.gov.in/en/node/12194

Buyers and residents should always cross-check any privately hosted "master plan" PDF or broker-supplied zoning map against these official GMADA pages before relying on it, since GMADA itself warns that altered zoning documents circulate in the market.