Mohali, Sept. 11 -- The long-pending development of Mohali's Sector 90 is inching closer to reality, with the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) agreeing to swap 23 acres of protected forest land in Mohali with its land in Ludhiana's Mattewara village.

The land swap will allow the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) to use of the protected forest land in Mohali's Sector 90 for non-forest purpose. In exchange, the land in Mattewara village will be developed as a forest.

To develop Sector 90, GMADA had acquired 229 acres in 2015 near Lakhnaur village under Punjab government's land pooling scheme. However, the authority failed to obtain a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the forest department for six years...