Delhi - Mumbai expressway: When clean air turns into a mirage

The completion of the Delhi - Mumbai Expressway has triggered a modern-day land rush. From South Delhi to Gurugram, convoys of luxury SUVs now head toward Alwar every weekend in search of “farm plots” and “weekend estates.” For city dwellers suffocating in toxic air, the promise of clean skies and open horizons feels irresistible. But beneath the drone shots and glossy brochures lies a harsher reality much of this so-called “farmhouse boom” is unfolding in the most backward, inaccessible belts of southern Haryana and Mewat, far from the actual expressway corridor.

Developers are selling dreams along dusty rural roads agricultural parcels rebranded as lifestyle “farm zones.” Investors are shown hill views and rain-washed meadows but rarely told that the land lacks any conversion under Section 90A of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, no layout approved by the Senior Town Planner, and no inclusion within an urban local body. The pitches are as creative as they are misleading: promises of “future conversion,” talk of “government approvals in process,” and glossy renderings that disguise the absence of any civic grid or infrastructure.