New Agra Urban Centre: Connectivity — Airports, Expressways, Rail, Freight Corridor & Metro Links

Overview

New Agra Urban Centre (also referred to as New Agra, New Agra City or Agra Urban Centre) is planned by YEIDA on the Yamuna Expressway belt. The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) completed the master plan for the New Agra Urban Centre, which is set to be developed across 12,200 hectares in 58 villages of the Agra district. Its connectivity pitch rests heavily on the existing Yamuna Expressway and Agra–Lucknow Expressway, plus a stack of rail, freight and airport projects that are at very different stages of readiness — from fully operational to still on paper.

Airports

Agra (Kheria) Airport — operational, expansion under construction. Agra Airport, also known as Kheria Airport, is a dual use airport with an Indian Air Force base and a domestic airport civil enclave serving Agra city. In September 2023 the Uttar Pradesh cabinet cleared a ₹123 crore proposal for land acquisition to expand the civil enclave and upgrade the airport to international category, involving 92.50 acres of land and a new 30,000 sqm terminal with nine bays. Its foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2024, with construction set to begin in the second half of 2025 and completion slated for late 2027 or the first half of 2028. The current terminal remains a modest domestic facility with mostly IndiGo services.

Noida International Airport (Jewar) — under construction. This is the nearest large-scale airport to the New Agra site rather than an airport within it. YEIDA's own materials describe New Agra as approximately 120 km from Noida International Airport, with planned high-speed rail connectivity between the two nodes. In March 2025 the Indian government also approved a project connecting the Yamuna Expressway to Noida International Airport at Jewar.

Expressways & Highways

Yamuna Expressway — operational. Yamuna Expressway is a 6-lane (expandable to 8), 165.5 km long access-controlled expressway that connects Greater Noida with Agra. It is a 165.537 km, six-lane access-controlled highway connecting Pari Chowk in Greater Noida to Kuberpur on NH-2 near Agra, inaugurated on August 9, 2012. This expressway runs directly through the YEIDA jurisdiction and is the primary access spine for New Agra.

Agra–Lucknow Expressway — operational. The Agra–Lucknow Expressway is a 302 km long, 6-lane wide (extendable to 8-lanes) access-controlled expressway that reduced the distance between Agra and Lucknow, completed and inaugurated on 21 November 2016. It is connected to the Yamuna Expressway through the Agra Ring Road, providing an express link between Greater Noida, NCR and Lucknow via Agra.

Agra Inner Ring Road — link, partly built/proposed. The Yamuna Expressway is linked to the Agra-Lucknow Expressway through the Agra Inner Ring Road Expressway, 11.9 km long, which shortens the distance and avoids heavy traffic in Agra for tourists heading to the Taj Mahal. A separate, shorter access road is also planned: a proposed 7 km Inner Ring Road by NHAI would connect a new high-speed rail station near Etmadpur Madra village.

Yamuna Expressway–Delhi-Agra Highway (NH-2) connector — approved, under development. In March 2025, the Indian government approved a project to connect the Yamuna Expressway with the Delhi-Agra Highway. The stated aims include fostering development in the surrounding areas and alleviating traffic congestion on NH-2, which passes through densely populated towns such as Faridabad, Ballabgarh and Palwal.

Rail, High-Speed Rail & Freight Corridor

Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor — cited as existing infrastructure. YEIDA planning material states the proposed city will benefit from direct access to the Yamuna Expressway, the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, and future high-speed rail connectivity linked to Jewar Airport. The authority's own data insights describe New Agra as benefiting from excellent connectivity via the Yamuna Expressway and the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, and being approximately 120 km from Noida International Airport, with planned high-speed rail connectivity between the two nodes. Precise operational-status detail for the DFC segment nearest New Agra was not confirmed in current sources, so this should be read as a planning-stage connectivity claim rather than a confirmed freight link into the township itself.

New rail lines and a freight-only track, Tundla–Yamuna Bridge — proposed. Indian Railways plans to lay two new rail lines between Tundla and Yamuna Bridge, with one line dedicated to freight (goods trains) and two to three new stations to be developed in this section.

High-speed rail station near Etmadpur Madra — proposed. A new high-speed rail station is planned near Etmadpur Madra village in Agra. This is within the New Agra Urban Centre footprint and is intended to be the anchor for future high-speed connections toward Delhi and the Jewar Airport region, though no construction timeline was confirmed as of mid-2026.

Delhi-region high-speed rail — Agra not yet on an approved corridor. A separate national programme announced in the 2026-27 Union Budget targets a ₹16 lakh crore blueprint for seven new high-speed rail corridors totalling roughly 4,000 km, targeting operational readiness by 2031, covering routes including Delhi–Varanasi — Agra is not named among these seven approved routes, so any Agra-specific bullet-train link remains at the aspirational/planning stage rather than an approved project.

Metro / Regional Rapid Transit Proposals

Agra Metro Phase 1 — partly operational, rest under construction. Agra Metro Phase 1 comprises two corridors covering a total of 29.4 km with 27 stations; the priority corridor of the Yellow Line, a 6 km stretch from Taj East Gate to Mankameshwar, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi on March 6, 2024. The remaining stretch of Corridor 1 is in its final stage of construction with overall completion expected by June 2026, while the priority section of Corridor 2 (Agra Cantt to Agra College) is planned for completion by December 2026, with the entire Corridor 2 now targeted for June 2027. Total estimated project cost for Phase 1 is Rs 12,899 crore, funded through a mix of central and state government equity and multilateral financing.

Extension toward New Agra site — proposed. The Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation plans to extend the metro corridor from Kalindi Vihar to Kuberpur within the next 4-5 years, with the Kalindi Vihar metro station expected to become operational by March 2027. The extended metro is proposed to be built over the divider of the National Highway and will be directly connected to the Yamuna Expressway and the Inner Ring Road. Kuberpur sits close to the New Agra Urban Centre's boundary near the Yamuna Expressway's Agra terminus, so this extension — not a metro line inside the township itself — is the closest current metro proposal to the site.

Longer-term city expansion. UPMRC has proposed 11 new corridors totalling 88.95 km to extensively cover the city in future, but these remain in the proposal stage pending DPR and government approval. None of these corridors currently run into the New Agra Urban Centre footprint.

Ports

Agra district and the New Agra site are landlocked, with no seaport or inland waterway terminal in or near the project area. No river-port or waterway proposal for New Agra was found in current planning material, so this category is not applicable.

Internal Road Network (Proposed)

Sector-grid layout — proposed, part of the master plan. New Agra City is a 12,200-hectare planned township designed on the Chandigarh sector model under YEIDA's master plan. The plan envisages a sector-based layout with open green zones and an efficient road network, with every sector designed to the same area of 800 metres by 1,200 metres for a consistent, organised urban landscape. Dedicated logistics parks, transport hubs and warehousing clusters are planned as part of the master plan, intended to support trade and industrial growth and position New Agra as a gateway between Noida, Jewar Airport, Greater Noida and Agra. As of mid-2026, this internal grid road network exists only on the master plan; no on-ground construction of internal sector roads has been confirmed in current reporting.