NCRPB Retains Existing NCR Boundaries Despite Haryana's Exclusion Request

What was decided

The NCR Planning Board decided to retain the existing geographical boundaries of the region, meaning all 32 districts currently included within the NCR will continue to remain part of it. The NCRPB also decided that the geographical extent of the NCR would remain unchanged, ending speculation over the possible inclusion or exclusion of districts from the region. The decision was taken at the board's 42nd meeting, chaired by Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal and attended by Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, and urban development ministers from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The rejected request

The decision comes despite Haryana's earlier proposal to exclude districts such as Karnal, Jind, Panipat, Mahendragarh and Bhiwani from the NCR, with the state arguing that environmental restrictions and measures such as the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) were affecting development prospects in these areas. The Centre, however, opted to maintain the existing NCR boundaries. A separate report confirmed the same outcome from Haryana's side: the 42nd board meeting also confirmed that Haryana's NCR boundaries will remain unchanged, with all 14 of its districts including Karnal, Panipat, Jind, Mahendragarh and Bhiwani staying within the NCR fold.

This was not a new grievance — Haryana had for some time sought a large reduction in its NCR footprint. The NCR is officially spread over 55,083 square kilometres of area, of which 25,327 sq km lies in Haryana, meaning nearly 46 per cent of the NCR's area falls in Haryana across 14 districts, compared with Uttar Pradesh's 8 districts and Rajasthan's 2 districts. Haryana had earlier sent a proposal to the NCRPB to reduce its NCR area from 25,327 sq km to about 8,281.60 sq km — a cut of roughly one-third.

Why the board said no

Rather than redrawing district boundaries, the board opted for a differentiated regulatory approach. Another major proposal is the division of the NCR into three development zones, under which pollution-control measures and other regulatory restrictions would primarily apply to Delhi and adjoining areas of the Central NCR, while districts located farther from the national capital would be exempt from such restrictions. The Central NCR (CNCR) is proposed to extend beyond Delhi up to five kilometres outside the outer edge of the expressway ring formed by the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways, functioning as the NCR's "Golden Ring of Opportunity" and key growth corridor. The proposal also recommends that, whenever pollution-related restrictions become necessary, authorities should limit their implementation to the Central NCR so that distant districts do not face avoidable development constraints.

On the environmental side, Union Minister Manohar Lal said the 'natural conservation zone' in the Aravalis would remain untouched, and that the NCR planning board has decided to increase green cover across the region, while noting that Delhi and Haryana are yet to submit surveys of their respective natural conservation zones.

Other decisions taken at the same meeting

The boundary decision was one part of a broader set of outcomes from the 42nd meeting. The NCR will get four new greenfield urban centres, to be called "Namo Cities", under the proposed Regional Plan-2041, with participating states competing for Rs 5,000 crore in funding earmarked for their development over the next five years, and each state having to submit three plans for three identified cities, of which one will be selected. Beyond the boundary confirmation, the meeting also reviewed progress on the Rapid Rail Transit System — branded as Namo Bharat — toward Karnal and Manesar. A conversion scheme for vehicles below BS-6 standards operating within the NCR was also approved, targeting the region's persistent air quality crisis.

Crucially, despite extensive deliberations, the Regional Plan 2041 could not be approved at the meeting as participating states failed to reach consensus on all aspects, so a sub-committee comprising senior officials from the Centre and the governments of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi has been constituted and tasked with submitting its final report by August 15. Manohar Lal said all aspects of the Regional Plan 2041 were discussed in detail and that another meeting would be held after two months, following which the plan would be finalised.

Practical effect

For residents, landowners and developers in the districts Haryana wanted excluded, the immediate effect is that nothing changes on the map — Karnal, Jind, Panipat, Mahendragarh and Bhiwani remain formally part of the NCR planning area, subject to NCRPB coordination and the forthcoming Regional Plan 2041. At present, the NCR spans nearly 55,000 sq km covering Delhi and 32 districts across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and the Board maintained that retaining the existing boundary is essential for integrated regional planning, infrastructure coordination and balanced economic development.

What does change, at least in proposal form, is how pollution rules will be applied going forward: rather than a single uniform GRAP-style regime across all 32 districts, the draft plan points toward tiered zones so that the toughest curbs concentrate on the Central NCR core, with the intent that peripheral districts face proportionately lighter restrictions — the concession the Centre offered in place of an actual boundary cut. This forms part of a wider introduction of three pollution management zones — Central NCR (CNCR), Intermediate NCR and Peripheral NCR — replacing the existing uniform environmental framework, with the strictest measures reserved for Delhi and adjoining urban districts and comparatively relaxed norms for outer districts.

What happens next

The broad consensus reached at the 42nd meeting leaves the Regional Plan-2041 just a step away from formal adoption, with another meeting expected in August, as learnt by The Tribune. Though the Regional Plan-2041 was not formally approved, officials indicated that only technical refinements remained before the final blueprint was declared, potentially in August, setting the course for how a region of up to 15 crore people would grow in the decades ahead. Locations for the four Namo Cities are a separate, parallel process: the locations of the proposed Namo cities are yet to be finalised — a committee has been constituted for the purpose and participating states have been asked to submit their suggestions.