YEIDA Board Proposal: Heritage City (Raya) to Expand from 750 to ~3,000 Acres

What was decided

In a board meeting chaired by Alok Kumar, Principal Secretary (Industry) and YEIDA Chairman, the Authority placed before the board a proposal to sharply enlarge the scope of the Heritage City project at Raya. The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority is set to drastically expand the scope of the proposed Heritage City in the Raya Urban Center, recognizing the skyrocketing demand for residential and commercial space, moving to increase the project area by four times its original size.

Originally, the Heritage City was planned to be developed over an area of 750 acres, but keeping in view the massive influx of devotees and the growing demand for real estate in Mathura and Vrindavan, officials have revised the blueprint so that the new proposal aims to expand the area to approximately 3,000 acres.

The proposal, placed in the YEIDA board meeting chaired by Alok Kumar, suggests that facilities within this expanded city may be developed under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. The chosen location in the Raya Urban Center is considered ideal due to the availability of land and its proximity to existing road networks, ensuring seamless connectivity for future residents and pilgrims.

Background: how the project got here

The Heritage City has been through several changes in scale and execution model since its DPR was first finalised. It was set to cover 750 acres of land in the Raya Urban Center of Mathura, with a budget of Rs 1,220 crore. Its first phase was slated to take shape by 2027.

By late October 2025, YEIDA had shifted the execution model for the (then) roughly 750-acre plan. YEIDA decided to directly take up development of residential and commercial clusters in the Heritage City project, instead of handing it entirely to a private developer, opting for a hybrid model that combines government-led and PPP approaches. This followed financial and operational reviews suggesting a fully PPP-based model could face challenges in cost recovery, especially as the Authority itself is responsible for land acquisition.

Separately, in early November 2025, YEIDA CEO Rakesh Kumar Singh described the project's cost and structure: spread over 753 acres, the Heritage City was estimated to cost Rs 950 crore, to be executed in a hybrid format, with a portion developed under the PPP model and the rest by the Authority itself. About Rs 700 crore was to be spent on land acquisition, funded through the sale of residential and commercial plots.

Land acquisition for the original-scale project has already been under way in specific villages. Acquisition efforts have focused on the villages of Arua Khadar and Bhim Khadar, as part of the second phase of the Heritage City Project, which spans 735 acres and has been under review for two to three years. The July 2026 board proposal to go to ~3,000 acres represents a major scaling-up beyond this existing 735–773-acre planning base.

Location and operative rationale

The project sits within the broader Raya Urban Centre, also referred to in project literature as Raya Heritage City or New Vrindavan Township. Raya Heritage City is a large-scale heritage-themed smart city being planned by YEIDA along the Yamuna Expressway in Mathura district, spanning 9,350 hectares and incorporating tourism zones, a riverfront, residential sectors, commercial hubs, and infrastructure dedicated to Krishna-centric cultural heritage. The heritage-city component itself is situated near the 101-km milestone of the Yamuna Expressway and connected to the Banke Bihari temple by a 6.9 km expressway.

The rationale given for favouring Raya Urban Centre for the enlarged footprint is practical: availability of land and its proximity to existing road networks, ensuring seamless connectivity for future residents and pilgrims.

Other agenda items at the same meeting

Two other measures were discussed alongside the Heritage City expansion proposal. A pilot project to run Hydrogen Fuel Buses in Yamuna City was proposed, in a first for Uttar Pradesh, with the buses to be supplied by NTPC and to connect to Noida Airport. The hydrogen fuel is planned to be generated using treated water from Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs).

The board also took up relief for stuck housing projects. The board discussed solutions for stuck real estate projects, aiming to restart the registry process for hundreds of families who have been waiting for possession. This mirrors YEIDA's separate, ongoing work on legacy stalled projects elsewhere in its jurisdiction, where a One-Time Settlement scheme and checklist clearances have been used to unlock possession and registration for other stuck plots and flats.

Practical effect for investors and residents

If carried through, the expansion would substantially increase the supply of legally notified plots and heritage-tourism infrastructure around Raya. For investors, the expansion of the Heritage City from 750 to 3,000 acres signals a massive upcoming supply of legal, organized real estate inventory, reinforcing the trend that Vrindavan is evolving into a high-growth urban centre and not just a spiritual destination.

What has not yet happened: as of this record, the ~3,000-acre figure is a board-level proposal, not a confirmed land notification, master-plan amendment, or finalised DPR. Compensation rates, exact village-level boundaries, and a revised budget for the enlarged 3,000-acre scope have not been published. Readers should treat the expansion as a policy direction under discussion rather than a completed land acquisition or a launched plot scheme.