Ghaziabad: UP govt has approved Rs 943 crore in fresh funding for the Harnandipuram township project under its CM Urban Expansion New City Promotion Scheme on Friday. Officials said the amount will be used for land acquisition and to provide infrastructure.The state had earlier allocated Rs 3,000 crore under the scheme in its 2025 budget, of which Rs 1,366 crore was earmarked for Harnandipuram as capital seed funding. “Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) has already infused financial assistance of Rs 400 crore in the township, which will be used in work related to providing basic infrastructure,” a GDA official said.The township was originally planned in 2024. It was supposed to be as big as Indirapuram and to cover 521 hectares across eight villages. The cost of the project is to be divided between the state govt and the Ghaziabad Development Authority.However, in Feb last year, the Authority cited the high cost of land acquisition and scaled down the project. Three villages — Shahpur Morta, Bhowapur and Morta — accounting for roughly 151 hectares have since been excluded from the project.GDA was then required to acquire 127 hectares of private land because the remainder belonged to the Authority or the gram sabha. “A total of 79 hectares have been acquired so far, while consent has been received for another 130 hectares and a consultant is in the process of preparing the DPR of the project which is being taken up in phases.”In the first phase of the project, officials plan to come up with the layout plan for 336 hectares from three villages — Mathurapur, Shamsher and Nangla Feroze Mohan Nagar.According to one of the estimates, Rs 15,000 crore will be needed to develop Harnandipuram, and a large chunk will go into acquiring land at mutually agreed rates from the farmers.
