India, March 19 -- The Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) in its board meeting held on Tuesday cleared a proposal to include land belonging to 61 villages alongside the Delhi Meerut Expressway (DME), the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), which will lead to a major expansion in the area.

The GDA officials said the expansion is estimated to include about 21,000 hectares of additional area into the GDA jurisdiction area. They said that they had also put forward a proposal for inclusion of another 16 villages from Hapur-Pilkhuwa development authority (HPDA). But the board decided to set up a committee to discuss the proposal further. It will be taken up in the next meeting.

"The board cleared the proposal to include 61 villages in the...