New Agra Urban Centre: Land Acquisition Model, Villages, Compensation and Current Stage

What is the New Agra Urban Centre?

The New Agra Urban Centre — also referred to as New Agra, New Agra City or Agra Urban Centre — is a planned township proposed by the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) along the Yamuna Expressway in Agra district, Uttar Pradesh. This is a YEIDA project and is distinct from the separately run "Greater Agra" township scheme of the Agra Development Authority (ADA), which covers different land parcels near Agra city under a different authority.

The New Agra Urban Centre will host a wide range of activities, including industrial, residential, and green spaces, with its main draw being its emphasis on tourism and the promotion of environmentally friendly manufacturers and businesses. YEIDA completed the master plan for the New Agra Urban Centre, set to be developed across 12,200 hectares in 58 villages of the Agra district.

Acquisition model: consent-based, not forced award

YEIDA has signalled it wants to avoid the lengthy compulsory-acquisition route used for earlier phases of the Yamuna Expressway project. YEIDA officials have stated that the land acquisition process will be expedited by allowing farmers to sell their land voluntarily through the registry process, bypassing the lengthy process outlined in the Land Acquisition Act of 2013.

This means the intended model for New Agra is a negotiated, registry-based purchase directly from landowners rather than a compensation "award" issued under the compulsory acquisition and rehabilitation framework. A private consulting firm was commissioned to prepare the Detailed Project Report, and once that report is completed, the next steps involve zonal planning and land acquisition. As of the most recent reporting reviewed, no district-level acquisition notification specific to the New Agra Urban Centre footprint had been confirmed.

Villages covered

Reported village counts for the New Agra footprint have varied across different stages of planning, which is common as boundaries are refined before formal notification:

• The completed master plan places the project across 58 villages of the Agra district, on 12,200 hectares.
• A separate account describes the project as covering 44 villages in the Agra district.
• An earlier account, from when the concept plan was first floated, said the metropolitan hub would be built on land purchased from at least 30 villages.

No published source reviewed for this page lists the individual names of the villages within the New Agra footprint. Investors and residents should treat exact village-level detail as unconfirmed until YEIDA issues a formal notification listing specific revenue villages.

For context on the wider YEIDA jurisdiction that New Agra sits within: around 200,000 hectares from 1,187 villages of six districts — Gautam Budh Nagar, Bulandshahar, Aligarh, Hathras, Mathura, and Agra — were notified under YEIDA.

Land use split (approved master plan)

Following extensive surveys and consultations, YEIDA's completed master plan sets out a detailed land-use split across the 12,200-hectare footprint:

• The plan designates 2,501 hectares, 27.7 per cent of the total area, for residential use.
• Industrial use is allocated 1,813 hectares or 20.11 per cent of the total area.
• Mixed-use development zones spread over 447 hectares will combine residential, commercial, and entertainment facilities.
• Given Agra's historic importance, 640 hectares are reserved for tourism and entertainment.
• The master plan earmarks 823 hectares as a buffer zone along the Yamuna and 485 hectares as green spaces, acting as the city's ecological lungs.
• Forest and agricultural lands will be preserved over 434 hectares, and a total of 330 hectares is reserved for educational and healthcare infrastructure.

This differs from an earlier, provisional split floated when the concept was first announced, which had proposed 20% of the land for residential use, 4% for commercial use, 25% for industrial, 13% for transportation, 15% for greenery, 7% for tourist, and 7% for mixed use — a reminder that percentages shift as planning matures.

Compensation rates: not yet published for New Agra specifically

No source reviewed for this page carries a confirmed per-hectare or per-bigha compensation rate specifically for land inside the New Agra Urban Centre footprint. This is consistent with the project's current stage: acquisition on the ground has not been confirmed as having formally started.

What is documented is a related, district-level compensation decision that affects farmers across Agra along with other YEIDA districts, though it applies to older acquisitions rather than the New Agra project itself: YEIDA has planned to offer hiked 64.7 per cent land compensation to farmers in districts including Aligarh, Mathura, Hathras and Agra, whose land falls outside the master plan-2041. The decision is likely to benefit hundreds of farmers, whose land was acquired before 2017. Importantly, YEIDA is not as yet aware how much land falls in this category and how much total amount the authority needs to pay to farmers in the hiked compensation for the land, officials said.

Readers should not treat this 64.7% figure as the New Agra Urban Centre's compensation rate — it relates to a separate backlog of pre-2017 land parcels outside the master plan, not to fresh acquisition for the new township.

Budget

The clearest publicly reported cost figure for the project dates to when it was still a smaller, earlier-stage concept: once the master plan for the urban metropolis is finalised, work will commence on the project, which would cost ₹40,000 crore, according to officials at the time. That estimate was tied to a 10,500-hectare concept plan; the footprint has since grown to 12,200 hectares under the completed master plan, so this cost figure should be treated as dated and likely to be revised once a fully costed project report is released.

No separate, itemised land-acquisition budget (as distinct from the overall project cost) has been found in current reporting.

Disputes and farmer concerns

No reporting reviewed describes active disputes, protests, or farmer negotiations specifically tied to the New Agra Urban Centre land, which is consistent with acquisition not yet having formally started there. However, two related threads of context matter for anyone tracking farmer relations in the wider YEIDA area:

• Farmers elsewhere in YEIDA's jurisdiction have organised protests over acquisition terms in the past. Farmers announced plans to shift their agitation to the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) from 28th November to 1st December 2024, followed by a march to Delhi starting on 2nd December 2024. This related to older Yamuna Expressway land issues, not the New Agra site.
• YEIDA's oldest and most prominent land dispute — the 2011 Bhatta-Parsaul protests over expressway land in Gautam Budh Nagar — has recently reached a legal conclusion. In 2026, the Allahabad High Court dismissed the final set of petitions from farmers, ruling it was already settled in previous court decisions, and allowed YEIDA to proceed with planned residential and industrial development on the disputed land. This case is unrelated to the New Agra Urban Centre but illustrates the kind of long-running compensation litigation YEIDA has faced historically.

Current stage

As of the most recent reporting reviewed, the New Agra Urban Centre remains at the planning and approval stage rather than active acquisition:

• YEIDA completed the master plan for the New Agra Urban Centre across 12,200 hectares in 58 villages, and the plan was due to be presented for approval at YEIDA's board meeting in April, with the project to commence post-approval (as reported in April 2025).
• A later YEIDA board meeting agenda, reported in November 2025, still listed the the New Agra master plan alongside other board business, indicating continued institutional review rather than a confirmed on-ground acquisition rollout.
• As of mid-2026 market commentary, the project was still being described as being "prepared" rather than under active construction: the Uttar Pradesh government is preparing one of its most ambitious urban development projects, named the New Agra Urban Centre, along the Yamuna Expressway.

In short: master planning is far advanced and land-use zoning is finalised on paper, but a confirmed, dated announcement of formal land acquisition starting on the ground for New Agra specifically was not found as of this update.