Twenty-five years of Jaypee Greens
The story of how farmland on the edge of a new city became India’s first golf-centric township, told from the first idea to the present day.
Chapter 01 · How it began
An idea ahead of its time
At the turn of the millennium, Greater Noida was still a city on paper: wide roads, open fields and very few homes.
The Jaypee Group, founded by civil engineer Jaiprakash Gaur and best known until then for dams, roads and cement, chose this land for its first venture into real estate. The idea was unusual for India at the time: before a single home was built, the group would lay out a full championship golf course, and let the township grow around it.
To design it, the group turned to Greg Norman, one of the greatest golfers of his generation. His 18-hole course would become the centrepiece of everything that followed.
Chapter 02 · Building the township
From the first tee to the first homes
The Greg Norman course opened around 2000–01, and play began while much of the land around it was still open ground. Through the early 2000s the lakes were dug, the fairways matured and a woodland reserve of some 60 acres was set aside at the far end.
Then the homes came. Tower quarters such as Star Court, Sun Court and The Castille rose along the fairways, low-rise courts filled the edges of the golf quarter, and villa quarters were laid out among the greens. By the late 2000s the plan had grown to some 350 estate homes and villas and more than a thousand apartments.
A tower rising beside Star Court, with the golf course beyond. Photo: Ddevhsharrma, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Chapter 03 · Twenty-five years
The years that shaped Jaypee Greens
From the group that dreamed it up to the township it has become.
The Jaypee Group takes shape
Jaiprakash Gaur sets up Jaiprakash Associates, the engineering and construction company at the heart of the Jaypee Group.
The first tee
The Greg Norman course opens on former farmland in Greater Noida, India’s first golf course planned as the centre of a township.
A green township takes root
All 18 holes are in play, and a 60-acre nature reserve and a second, shorter course are planned alongside.
The neighbourhoods rise
Towers, courts and villas go up along the fairways as families begin to make Jaypee Greens their home.
Atlantis – The Club opens
The township’s integrated sports complex opens in August, bringing an athletics track, an Olympic-size pool and courts for every game.
The resort welcomes its first guests
The Jaypee Greens Golf & Spa Resort opens beside the course, adding hospitality and a spa to township life.
National recognition
The course is named Best Tourism Friendly Golf Course at the National Tourism Awards, for the third time.
The metro arrives
The Aqua Line opens with a station at Pari Chowk, at the township’s corner.
Legends on the course
The HSBC India Legends Championship brings the stars of senior golf to Jaypee Greens.
Twenty-five years on
A quarter of a century after the first tee, a new generation of residences is announced inside the township.
A new chapter
The Kapil Dev Invitational Tour Championship is played on the course, and Noida International Airport opens nearby.
Chapter 04 · In pictures
How the township grew From open fields to an established address, in four stages.
