By Girish Chhalwani, Co-Founder, Lords of the Lands · ~8 min read · Last updated: 23 September 2026

So what is NAINA? It is a planning jurisdiction, not a place: a set of rules, administered by CIDCO as Special Planning Authority, about who decides what may be built on land that sits inside a notified boundary. It is routinely marketed as a place, and it is not one — and for a land buyer that distinction is the entire point, because those rules override a great deal of what a seller may be telling you. For how NAINA compares with KSC New Town and ‘Mumbai 3.0’, see our terminology explainer.

What does NAINA stand for, and why does it exist?

Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area — notified in January 2013 so land around the new airport would be planned rather than sprawl, with CIDCO appointed Special Planning Authority under the MRTP Act, 1966.

Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area. The state notified it in January 2013, shortly after the airport project was cleared, for a simple reason: the land around a new international airport was going to be developed whether or not anyone planned it, and the alternative to planning was the unserviced sprawl that had already happened around Mumbai’s existing airport.

CIDCO — the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra, the same body that built Navi Mumbai — was appointed Special Planning Authority under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966. That appointment is what gives NAINA its force. Inside the boundary, CIDCO, not the gram panchayat and not the Collector, controls development permission.

How big is it, and where?

Originally about 560 sq km across some 270 villages in Raigad — chiefly Panvel, with parts of Uran and Pen — reduced to roughly 94 core villages after the 2024 reassignment, all planned by CIDCO under the MRTP Act, 1966.

The 2024 reassignment matters and is frequently glossed over in marketing. A substantial part of the original NAINA area was moved out of CIDCO’s NAINA jurisdiction and into the KSC New Town area under MMRDA — which is what most people mean when they say “Third Mumbai”. Same ground, different planning authority, different rules. A brochure written before 2024 may be describing a jurisdiction that no longer applies to the parcel it is selling.

How does development actually happen inside NAINA?

Through Town Planning Schemes that pool a block of land, plan it as one, and return roughly 40% of a holding to the owner as a serviced, reconstituted plot — with about 60% retained for roads, utilities and public purposes.

Through Town Planning Schemes, and this is the mechanism a landowner or buyer has to understand.

A TPS takes a block of villages, pools the land within it, plans the whole block as one — roads, utilities, open space, amenity plots, saleable plots — and then reconstitutes the pooled land back to the original owners as serviced plots in the new layout.

How the 40–60 pooling split actually works

The arithmetic is the part that surprises people. Roughly sixty per cent of the pooled land is retained for infrastructure and public purposes. The landowner receives a reconstituted plot representing approximately forty per cent of the original holding.

Whether that is a good or bad outcome depends entirely on what the forty per cent is worth. A serviced, sanctioned, road-fronted plot inside a planned town with water and drainage is a different asset from four times as much unserviced agricultural land with no development permission. That is the bargain NAINA offers, and for many landowners it has been a good one. It is also not optional.

What are the stages of a TPS, and why do they matter?

A TPS runs through six stages — intention, draft scheme, objections, arbitration, preliminary scheme and final award — and only after the final award is a reconstituted plot’s size, identity and location settled.

1. Intention to make a scheme declared for the block.
2. Draft scheme published, showing the proposed reconstitution.
3. Objections and suggestions from affected owners.
4. Arbitrator appointed to determine the reconstituted plots, values and contributions.
5. Preliminary scheme sanctioned.
6. Final scheme and final award.

Where a parcel sits in that sequence determines what you can do with it and what you actually own. Before the draft, the outcome is unknown. Between draft and award, the reconstituted plot’s identity, size and location can change. Only after the final award is the position settled.

Buying inside a TPS block mid-process means buying a claim on a plot that is not yet defined. That can be done — it is done routinely — but it should be done knowingly and priced accordingly, which requires knowing the scheme number and its current stage.

Is being inside NAINA good or bad for land?

Both — it gives planning discipline, planned infrastructure and a serviced final plot, but costs you control, timing and area; and land inside the boundary with no active scheme carries the constraints without the benefits.

Both, and the answer depends on what kind of buyer you are.

What it gives you. Planning discipline, infrastructure that is planned rather than improvised, a legal framework for development permission, and a serviced final plot. Land inside a sanctioned TPS with a final award is about as procedurally clean as plotted land in the region gets.

What it costs you. Control, timing and area. You do not choose when your block is taken up, you do not choose the reconstitution, and you do not keep all your land. Development on your own terms, on your own schedule, is not available.

The trap. Land inside NAINA but outside any active TPS, with no development permission available and no scheme in sight. It has the constraints of the jurisdiction without the benefits, sometimes for years. This is a real category and it is frequently sold as “NAINA land” with the implication that inclusion is itself a credential.

What should you establish before buying anything described as NAINA land?

Whether the parcel is still in CIDCO’s NAINA or now in MMRDA’s KSC New Town, which TPS number and stage covers it, whether it sits in an excluded portion, its land use under the IDP, the final plot if reconstituted, the charges payable — and the usual 7/12, tenure, access and encumbrance checks.

• Is the parcel still in NAINA at all? After the 2024 reassignment, confirm whether CIDCO’s NAINA or MMRDA’s KSC New Town area has jurisdiction today.
• Which TPS number covers it, if any? And what stage is that scheme at — intention, draft, arbitration, preliminary, or final award?
• Is the parcel in an “excluded portion”? The Interim Development Plan held back a number of portions for further processing. Excluded land is in limbo.
• What is the land use under the IDP as currently amended?
• If reconstitution has happened, what is the final plot? Its number, area, frontage and location in the sanctioned scheme.
• What development charges and contributions are payable, and by whom.
• Everything you would check anyway — 7/12, mutation chain, tenure, access, encumbrances. NAINA is a planning regime. It does not clean title.

How does this go wrong?

“It’s in NAINA” is sold as a guarantee when inclusion is a constraint first; pre-2024 maps describe the wrong authority; unserviced land is priced at final-plot values; excluded portions are sold as scheme land; and unauthorised layouts are sold where only CIDCO can sanction.

“It’s in NAINA” sold as a guarantee. Inclusion in a notified area is a constraint before it is a benefit. Ask which scheme and what stage.

Pre-2024 documentation. Maps and brochures showing the original 560 sq km boundary, for a parcel now under a different authority.

Land sold at final-plot values before reconstitution. Paying for the serviced forty per cent while buying the unserviced hundred per cent that has not yet been through the scheme.

An excluded portion sold as scheme land. The boundary includes it; the scheme does not.

Unauthorised layouts inside the boundary. Plots sold from a layout that no authority sanctioned, in an area where CIDCO is the only body that can sanction one.

How Lords of the Lands approaches this

Our estates sit in the Karjat, Khopoli and Raigad coast pockets, outside the NAINA and KSC pooling regimes, which is a deliberate choice: in a pooling area the landowner’s outcome is set by a scheme, while in a sanctioned private layout it is set by documents a buyer can read today. Every plot we sell sits in a sanctioned layout with the approval, the title flow and the access position available for inspection before any payment. Where a buyer is comparing our plots against NAINA land, the question we would ask them to put to both sides is the same one: which scheme or sanction governs this parcel, at what stage, and can I see it?

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

NAINA, the airport & Mumbai 3.0

• What KSC New Town actually is – the MMRDA area that took over part of NAINA in 2024
• Mumbai 3.0 infrastructure in 2026 – the projects reshaping Raigad
• Navi Mumbai airport status – where NMIA stands now
• What the new airport changed for Raigad land
• Atal Setu and Raigad land – how the sea link shortened the map
• The Panvel–Karjat rail corridor
• The Virar–Alibaug multi-modal corridor
• The MMR growth corridors
• Why infrastructure timelines slip
• Comparing the land corridors

Title, NA status & the checks that matter

• What NA land actually means
• The NA conversion premium
• NA permission changes in Maharashtra
• Deemed NA through building plan approval
• How to read a 7/12 extract
• How to check a plot’s NA status
• Verifying title before you buy
• Right of way and access

Corridor land & buying strategy nearby

• Panvel plots in 2026
• Pen land in the Mumbai 3.0 belt
• Uran–Dronagiri land
• The real risks in emerging corridors
• Land banking near Mumbai
• What Lords of the Lands builds

Citations and sources

Sources: Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 (Special Planning Authority and Town Planning Scheme provisions, Chapters V and VII); NAINA notification, January 2013; CIDCO as Special Planning Authority; Interim Development Plan sanctioned 27 April 2017 and amended March 2024; Town Planning Schemes 1–14 as published by CIDCO. This article is general information current as of September 2026 and is not legal advice. Jurisdiction and scheme status are parcel-specific and have changed recently — verify the current position with CIDCO and your advocate before transacting. Official sources: CIDCO / NAINA · UDCPR / Urban Development Dept.