Khurpia Industrial Smart City (Kichha IMC): Connectivity Guide

Airport

Khurpia Farm in Udham Singh Nagar is a 1,002-acre Integrated Manufacturing Cluster under the Amritsar Kolkata Industrial Corridor, located just 17 km from Rudrapur in Kichha Tehsil, which puts it within similar range of Pantnagar Airport. India Rail Info lists Pantnagar Airport (PGH) as being 15 km from Kichha.

Pantnagar Airport is operational and domestic. It is operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and features a single asphalt runway measuring 1,372 metres in length. IndiGo provides twice-daily direct flights to Delhi (DEL) using ATR-72 aircraft, a service that commenced following the airport's 2023 infrastructure expansion. The airline also operates direct flights to Lucknow (LKO) and Agra (AGR).

An upgrade to international status is in progress but not complete. As of mid-2024, over 800 acres of land had been acquired for the project, including 524.7 acres registered under the AAI, though full transfer of the remaining 233 acres was pending. By August 2025, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami reported rapid progress in upgrading Pantnagar Airport to international status, alongside similar efforts at Dehradun Airport. There is no confirmed date for completion or for the start of any international service as of July 2026.

Expressways and National/State Highways

NICDC's own project page places the site directly on the regional highway grid: the site is strategically located near NH-09, NH-109, and SH-44.

The site is abutted by SH-44, the Bareilly–Nainital road, which runs with a 24 m right-of-way along the eastern side of the IMC. This state highway is the direct link between Khurpia and both Rudrapur/Pantnagar to the south and Haldwani/Kathgodam to the north.

National Highway 109 is one of the most important routes connecting the entire Kumaon region to the state and country, and is also the major route towards hill stations such as Nainital, Kausani, Ranikhet, Mukteswar and Almora from Delhi. Its southern terminal is at National Highway 9 near Rudrapur, close to Khurpia.

There is no dedicated greenfield expressway running through or terminating at Khurpia itself. The Delhi–Dehradun Expressway exists as part of the broader Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor's road network, but it serves the wider Dehradun corridor rather than the Kichha/Rudrapur belt directly. As of July 2026, no expressway-grade project has been announced specifically for the Khurpia site.

Internal Road Network (within the IMC)

The site's internal roads are defined in NICDC's EPC tender documents and are being built in phases. IMC Khurpia is planned to have three accesses to the site: Access 1 from the Kichha Bypass via a 60 m RoW road; Access 2 for private vehicles and Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) only, from SH-44 via a 30 m RoW road; and a future Access 3 from SH-44 to be built in Phase 2 upon acquisition of land.

Two entrance gates are being developed in Phase 1: Gate 1 at Access 1 from the Kichha Bypass, and Gate 2 at Access 2 from SH-44.

The internal spine and secondary network are also specified: a 45 m RoW arterial road of about 3.5 km is proposed to be the spine of the IMC, running through the site from south to north and connecting to SH-44 through access point 2. 30 m, 24 m and 18 m RoW roads form the sub-arterial, distributor and feeder road network, with the 30 m road running about 6.2 km, the 24 m road about 1.5 km, and the 18 m road about 9 km.

A logistics facility is also part of the plan: an overall requirement of an 8.23-acre site is proposed in the master plan for a truck terminal, intended to serve industrial traffic without congesting the internal roads.

Rail Connectivity

The nearest railhead is Kichha, not a new station built for the IMC but an existing halt. Kichha station is situated off National Highway 9 in Bandia, and is classified as a regular NSG-5 category facility with two platforms and a single electrified line track. As a grade D station, Kichha handles approximately 22–30 halting trains daily, primarily passenger and DEMU services connecting it to regional hubs such as Bareilly City, Lal Kuan, Kashipur, and Kasganj.

Electrification of this line is a recent, ongoing upgrade rather than a finished project: the Bareilly–Lalkuan section, in the Izzatnagar division of North Eastern Railway, is undergoing electrification with single-line electric traction using 25 kV, 50 Hz AC overhead catenary; as of 2025, electrification work is ongoing along the route.

NICDC's own project brief describes the alignment relative to the site itself: a broad-gauge railway line between Bareilly and Haldwani runs parallel to the site along with SH-44, which abuts the IMC on its eastern side. There is no passenger or freight rail siding built directly into the IMC boundary as of July 2026; access to rail is via the Kichha station a short distance away.

Dedicated Freight Corridor

Khurpia IMC's freight-corridor status is about planning geography, not a physical spur reaching the site. The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) has been considered the transportation backbone for the Amritsar Kolkata Industrial Corridor (AKIC) project, under which Khurpia is being developed. The EDFC itself is a broad-gauge freight corridor running between Ludhiana in Punjab and Dankuni near Kolkata in West Bengal, via Meerut and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The industrial corridor "band" tied to this freight line is wide, not a direct rail link: the ADKIC is to be stretched for a length of 150-200 km in a phased manner on both sides of the EDFC. Khurpia, in the Kumaon hills belt of Uttarakhand, sits within this broader planning corridor rather than on the EDFC alignment itself. No dedicated freight rail spur or siding connecting Khurpia directly to the EDFC has been announced as of July 2026.

Ports and Waterways

Uttarakhand is landlocked, and Khurpia has no direct port connectivity. At the corridor level, the AKIC corridor is built along the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor and will leverage the Inland Waterway System being developed along National Waterway 1, which extends from Allahabad to Haldia. This waterway is far from Khurpia and is relevant only to the wider corridor's east-coast export logistics, not to the Khurpia site's own connectivity.

Metro and RRTS Proposals

No metro rail or Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project has been proposed or announced for Khurpia, Kichha, or the wider Rudrapur–Udham Singh Nagar belt as of July 2026 in any of the official NICDC, state government, or project-tender material reviewed. Passenger movement to and from the IMC currently depends on road (private vehicle, IPT, and bus) and the limited passenger rail services at Kichha station, supplemented by Pantnagar Airport for longer-distance travel.