Heritage City Raya (Raya Urban Centre) — Master Plan, Land Use & Phasing

What is Heritage City Raya?

Heritage City Raya — also referred to as the Raya Urban Centre, Raya Heritage City or, informally, a New Vrindavan-style township — is a YEIDA project sited near Mathura and Vrindavan along the Yamuna Expressway.

Purpose: The Raya Heritage City is a flagship cultural and tourism development initiated by the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) in the Mathura district, Uttar Pradesh, conceived as the "Raya Urban Centre," inspired by Braj culture and the life of Lord Krishna. The stated goal is to act as a decongestion hub for Mathura-Vrindavan: YEIDA conceived the "Raya Urban Centre" with a dual core objective of de-congestion and elevation, creating a satellite counter-magnet to absorb tourist influx and offer high-quality accommodation and transit facilities.

Planning horizon: notified area vs. Phase 1

It's important to separate two different numbers that get used interchangeably in reporting:

• Wider planning/land-use area: Government-cleared land-use tables for the Raya Urban Centre under Master Plan-2031 sum to roughly 10,086 hectares once every category (residential, tourism, industrial, commercial, green belt, semi-public, etc.) is added up, based on the hectare figures released after the plan was cleared. The allocation of 2,216.25 hectares for residential use reflects YEIDA's commitment to creating vibrant living spaces, approximately 701.68 hectares is allocated for commercial spaces, and 853.46 hectares have been reserved for industrial development. Some secondary sources describe the overall Raya planning area as a colossal planning area of approximately 11,653 hectares, with the immediate phase-one development focusing on a notified cluster of roughly 735 to 753 acres — this larger figure has not been independently verified against YEIDA's own published tables and should be treated as approximate.
• Phase 1 (notified, being taken forward now): The first phase covers 753 acres with an investment of ₹7,200 crore, developed on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. A separate estimate puts the number lower: an estimated initial investment exceeding ₹6,300 crore for the notified heritage cluster alone. Readers should treat the investment figure as a range pending a finalised, published DPR.

As of June 2026, this Phase 1 land was still being assembled: land acquisition for the Heritage City near Mathura is in progress.

Land-use split (Master Plan-2031, Raya Urban Centre)

The table below reflects the hectare allocations released when the UP government cleared the Master Plan-2031 land-use tables for Raya Urban Centre (reported October 2024). Percentages are calculated against the sum of all listed categories (≈10,086 ha) and rounded to whole numbers.

Notably, the urban centre layout will form a six-kilometer-wide strip along the expressway, concentrating industrial activities primarily on one side, with tourism, riverfront and residential uses on the other.

Inside Phase 1: heritage, wellness and transit zones

Within the notified Phase 1 cluster, reporting on YEIDA's presentations describes several themed sub-zones, though these acreages are drawn from secondary coverage of the DPR rather than a published final layout:

• The absolute crown jewel of the project is the massive 350-acre Heritage Zone.
• YEIDA has dedicated over 100 acres to a tranquil Wellness Zone, envisioned for high-end yoga retreats, vipassana meditation centers, and naturopathy institutes.
• 46 acres are strictly set aside for a state-of-the-art Tourist Transit Facility.
• Adjacent to this transit hub is a 42-acre Convention Centre Zone aimed at MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) tourism.

A dedicated connector is also proposed: a proposed 7-kilometer greenfield expressway designed to directly connect the Yamuna Expressway to the precincts of the Banke Bihari Temple in Vrindavan.

Phases and target years

Only one phase has a defined footprint and cost estimate so far — Phase 1, the notified heritage cluster. No official completion year for this phase has been published in the sources reviewed; coverage describes it only as an active, funded project with land acquisition under way rather than giving a firm delivery date. Later phases (covering the remainder of the wider Raya Urban Centre land-use area) have not been broken into dated sub-phases in any document found.

Process milestones reported to date: the detailed project report for the Heritage City has been approved by the YEIDA authority board, with the report set to be reviewed by the UP bid evaluation committee and the committee of secretaries, after which YEIDA will initiate land acquisition. On the official YEIDA site, the process is described as: a new land parcel was proposed by MVDA and UPBVP for the Heritage City; the consultant, CBRE, was directed to assess the site area requirement and prepare an updated DPR; the updated DPR shall be put before the Board for approval, after which the Consultant shall submit RFP and Concession Agreement documents.

Population and employment targets

No Raya Urban Centre-specific population or employment target has been published in the sources reviewed. The only firm demographic figure available relates to the much larger YEIDA Phase 1 region as a whole (not Raya specifically): the population projected for Master Plan 2031 was 35 lakh in an urbanisable area of 24,739.01 hectares across the whole of YEIDA Phase 1. YEIDA's Phase-II planning documents include tables titled "Employment Generation Potential for proposed Urban Centres" and "Potential Industries for Raya Urban Centre," but the specific numbers in those tables were not accessible in the material reviewed for this page — readers wanting exact projections should consult the draft Phase-II report directly (linked below).

Planner / consultant

YEIDA has engaged CBRE (South Asia) as the consultant for the Heritage City project. Per YEIDA's own project page, the consultant, CBRE, was directed to assess the site area requirement and prepare an updated DPR, which will be put across the Board for approval, after which the Consultant shall submit RFP and Concession Agreement (CA) documents. Separately, coverage of the project's bidding process notes CBRE's role in structuring investor interest: by engaging global consultants like CBRE South Asia to manage the rigorous bidding and tender processes, YEIDA is signalling its intent to attract top-tier international and national real estate developers.

Where to find the official plan documents

For primary material, use YEIDA's own site rather than third-party summaries:

• YEIDA's official Heritage City project status page (board decisions, DPR/consultant status): yamunaexpresswayauthority.com/web/heritage-city
• YEIDA's Master Plan section (Master Plan 2041 / Perspective Plan overview): yamunaexpresswayauthority.com/web/about-us/master-plan
• Draft Master Plan 2041 full report (PDF, hosted on YEIDA's site): 20240902_FULL-REPORT_Master-Plan_YEIDA-2041
• Draft Master Plan of YEIDA Phase-II 2031 (PDF, includes Raya Urban Centre industrial-compatibility and employment-generation tables): 20241209_PHASE-2_REPORT

We link to these rather than reproduce their contents; figures and clauses quoted on this page are cited to their specific source above.