YEIDA Begins Land Acquisition for Heritage City, Raya — Direct Farmer Purchase Model (June 2025)

What was decided

On 4 June 2025, YEIDA officials confirmed that the authority had started the land acquisition process for the proposed Heritage City township at Raya, near Mathura and Vrindavan. This was not a land price notification or a completed acquisition — it was the opening administrative step: seeking farmer consent before any compensation figure existed.

According to the official, the land registration work will start as soon as the compensation rates are decided, and the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) has started the process of land purchase for the proposed Heritage City project in the Mathura district. This decision will be taken in the YEIDA board meeting to be held this month.

The project will be based on the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model, and the land will be purchased directly from the farmers, not through the traditional acquisition system. The process of land purchase is going on in Arua Khadar and Bhim Khadar villages, and the authority has also set up an office in Mathura.

Villages and area covered

The land acquisition will be conducted from the following villages: Arua Khadar, Bhim Khadar, Dangoli Khadar, Pani Village Khadar, Piproli Khadar, Jehangirpur, Begumpur Khadar, and Jehangirpur Khadar. An earlier project brief covering the same villages listed them under slightly different transliterations: the project encompasses villages including Arwa Khadar, Bhim Khadar, Dangrauli Khadar, Pani Gaon Khadar, Piprauli, Jahangirpur Khadar and Begumpur Khadar.

Reported project size has varied across official statements and consultant reports over time — from roughly 735 acres to about 773 acres — reflecting successive revisions of the boundary rather than a single fixed figure.

Compensation process — what was and wasn't decided

As of the 4 June 2025 report, no compensation rate had been fixed. A senior official from YEIDA indicated that the compensation rates for the land will be established during the board meeting, after which the distribution of compensation and the execution of sale deeds will commence.

This sequencing matters for landowners: consent-gathering and site identification came first; rate-setting at the board level was the next gate; registration and sale-deed execution would only follow that board decision. A subsequent board-meeting preview later that month confirmed the item remained on YEIDA's active agenda: the YEIDA is making progress in acquiring land for key projects, including the Multi-Model Logistics Park in Aligarh and the Heritage City Project in Mathura.

Planned facility breakdown (per the June 2025 project brief)

Officials released an indicative land-use split for the Heritage City facilities at the time of the announcement:

The authority said it would issue a tender by the end of that month to select the developer company for this project.

PPP model at the time of the decision

At the time of the June 2025 announcement, YEIDA's stated approach was a single PPP structure: the initiative would follow a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, allowing direct purchases from farmers rather than through conventional acquisition methods. This meant land would be bought directly by (or on behalf of) the authority from consenting farmers, with a private partner later brought in to build and operate the township.

Practical effect — what happened after this decision

This June 2025 step was a starting point, not a completed acquisition or a finalised project design. Later developments show the project moving forward but also changing shape:

• By November 2024, government approval of the Detailed Project Report (DPR) had already allowed YEIDA's notified Raya site to move to the bid-preparation stage, with CBRE South Asia engaged to prepare bid documents.
• The DPR for the Heritage City was approved by the authority board, with the report then due for review by the UP bid evaluation committee and the committee of secretaries before land acquisition proper could begin.
• By October 2025, YEIDA's execution model had shifted: rather than handing the project entirely to a private developer as planned earlier, YEIDA said it would directly take up development of residential and commercial clusters itself, opting for a hybrid model combining government-led and PPP approaches.
• Under the revised model, YEIDA would develop the residential and commercial segments, while religious, tourism, and cultural infrastructure would be created through PPP partnerships.
• Flood risk on the Yamuna floodplain also forced a design change: during the monsoon season, floodwater from the Yamuna River had reached the proposed site, prompting YEIDA to order a fresh survey.
• A revised hybrid-model proposal, plus the consultant's assessment and a new expressway alignment to Vrindavan, was tabled for approval at YEIDA's board meeting on November 7, 2025, after which the process of selecting a developer would begin.

For landowners in the named villages, the practical upshot as of the most recent reporting is that consent-based land purchase, compensation rate-setting, and the developer-selection tender are all still sequential steps tied to board approvals — none had been reported as fully completed at time of writing.