Mohali, May 5 -- Stuck in red-tape and environmental hurdles for nearly 10 years, development of Mohali's Sector 90 is finally on the road to progress.

In a pivotal clearance, the Punjab government has agreed to swap 23 acres of protected forest land falling under Sector 90 with land in Ludhiana's Mattewara village, giving renewed hope to around 700 allottees awaiting land possession for a decade.

The land swap will allow the use of the protected forest land in Sector 90 for non-forest purpose. In exchange, the land in Mattewara village will be developed as a forest.

To develop Sector 90, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) had acquired 229 acres in 2015 near Lakhnaur village under Punjab government's land pooling sch...