YEIDA's 973-Plot Scheme Near Jewar Airport Draws Record Demand

YEIDA's Airport-Adjacent Plot Scheme Turns Into a Lottery of Epic Proportions

For a stretch of highway that was mostly sugarcane fields a decade ago, the numbers coming out of YEIDA's latest land draw are staggering. The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority's residential plot scheme, RPS-10, offered just 973 plots across Sectors 15C, 18, and 24A, near the Noida International Airport, and yet the response has redefined what "demand" means in this corridor. The scheme received over one lakh applications, highlighting the strong demand for residential plots in the Yamuna Expressway region. The mechanics of the scheme are straightforward on paper. Applications opened on April 6, 2026, with a computerised draw scheduled for June 18, 2026, and the draw for allotment was conducted as scheduled. Plot sizes were split across six categories, including 476 plots of 162 square metres, along with smaller batches of 183, 184, 200, 223 and 290 square metre plots, priced at an average of around Rs 35,000 to Rs 36,260 per square metre depending on the sector. Under the scheme, 17.5 percent of plots were reserved for farmers whose lands have been acquired, and five percent for those with functional industrial units in the Yamuna City area, leaving 775 plots, or 77.5 percent of the total, open to the general public. What's driving this frenzy isn't hard to trace. Property consultants say infrastructure-led growth has sharply boosted real estate values along the Yamuna Expressway, with average apartment prices rising 158 percent over the past five years, while plot values have surged 536 percent, largely on the back of the airport project. Colliers India's own tracking backs this up: land prices in the region have increased about 40 percent over the last five years and are projected to rise a further 50 percent by 2030. As one industry observer put it bluntly, "prices for land near Jewar have already risen 50% in five years" — and that's before the airport has settled into full operations. That sentiment explains why applicants queued up in numbers YEIDA officials admit they didn't fully anticipate. Every additional flight path, industrial cluster, and logistics park sanctioned around Jewar adds another layer of justification for buyers betting on appreciation rather than immediate use. Government-backed plots also carry an appeal private developer land banks can't always match — clear titles, transparent lottery allotment, and sector-level infrastructure planning baked into the YEIDA Masterplan 2031. Buyers, however, are being urged to keep their enthusiasm in check. As YEIDA continues to expand planned development under the Masterplan 2031, recent crackdowns have revealed instances of illegal plot sales around the Noida International Airport, where land was marketed without any legal sanction. The advice from analysts is consistent: verify land records, approvals and seller credentials directly through YEIDA or UPRERA portals before any payment changes hands, especially given how many unauthorised brokers are capitalising on the airport buzz. RPS-10 is unlikely to be the last word from YEIDA on this corridor. The authority is already lining up subsequent residential schemes, with plots proposed across Sectors 17, 18 and 20 of the Yamuna Expressway region — Sector 18 alone is expected to have 2,880 plots, while Sectors 17 and 20 will have 455 and 463 plots, respectively. That pipeline signals that the appetite seen in RPS-10 isn't a one-off spike but part of a sustained land-hungry phase for the belt. For homebuyers who missed the RPS-10 lottery or who prefer a ready home over a plot-and-build journey, the same growth story is playing out through branded residential launches nearer the expressway and Greater Noida. Developers with an established presence in the NCR, including Signature Global, have been expanding footprints along this corridor precisely because the underlying demand drivers — airport connectivity, industrial job creation, and expressway access — apply just as strongly to apartments as they do to plots.