Colleges reshape Sehore belt in Madhya Pradesh: From farmland to urban hub, education fuels a real estate and lifestyle boom

In 2019, Sunita Sharma (name changed), a schoolteacher from Indore, admitted her son to VIT Bhopal University near Ashta. She was confronted with a choice most parents in her position dread. Instead of renting, she bought a flat for ₹20 lakh, even while committing ₹29 lakh for her son’s engineering fees. By 2024, as land prices soared post-COVID, she sold the flat for ₹60 lakh. The gain not only covered her son’s food, lodging, and education, but also left her with surplus savings. Otherwise, she would have spent at least ₹3-4 lakhs per year.

This is one of the many incidents that is reshaping the economic and demographic contours of areas like Ashta, Sehore, and Bhauri on the fringes of Bhopal. As the number of students increased, a rental economy exploded — farmers and villagers turned homes into hostels, constructed new PGs, and started food stalls, stationery stores, dry cleaning businesses, and transport outlets to serve the constant stream of students.

From rural hinterland to urban hub

When VIT Bhopal opened its campus near Ashta in 2017, the land around it was still largely farmland. “Five years ago, I bought a plot here for ₹120 per sq ft,” recalls Rajesh Patel, who now runs a four-storey PG hostel for engineering students. “Today, the same land is valued at over ₹700 per sq ft. For us, education has become more profitable than agriculture ever was.”

Local entrepreneurs echo the sentiment. Small kirana shop owners who once sold to a handful of villagers now supply groceries, tiffin services, and laundry pick-ups to hundreds of students. “We were earning ₹1,000 a day; now, it’s ₹5,000 on average,” says Anita Sakya, who runs a food joint near IISER Bhopal in Bhauri.

The land boom is visible across the corridor. In Bhauri, where IISER and NIFT were set up in 2008, plots that went for ₹200–₹250 per sq ft a decade ago now fetch close to ₹1,000. At Kothri, near NIFT Bhopal, the rates have surged from ₹150 to ₹800 per sq ft. Even in Sehore, where the National Institute of Mental Health Rehabilitation (NIMHR) came up in 2018, land values near Khatu Shyam mandir have more than tripled.

“Big Colleges like IISER, NIREH, NIFT, VIT, NIMHR are changing the demography of this area. This is not only bringing in income opportunities for locals but also causing damage in many ways,” says a senior Sehore municipal official. “Students bring with them demand for housing, transport, food, dry cleaning, and digital services. That ecosystem turns a small town into a city. Besides, village children also go for tuitions to some of the day scholars here.”

According to the Census 2011, just 18.95% of Sehore’s 1.31 million people were based in urban areas. Ten years on, the population of the city has risen from below one lakh to almost one lakh fifty-seven thousand. The population of Ashta increased almost two times from a little under 28,000 in 1991 to a little over 53,000 in 2011, whereas Kothri had more than 2,000 inhabitants in 2000 and now has 10,526.

Urban literacy in Sehore now stands at over 84%, compared to 67% in rural parts, with women’s enrollment narrowing the gender gap. New hostels, cafés, and coaching centers are part of this emerging urban lifestyle, while connectivity improvements allow commuting from nearby rural belts.

Social shifts and new pressures

But urbanisation carries stresses. Nearly 57% of Sehore’s city population resides in slums or outgrowth areas, revealing gaps in housing, water, and municipal services. Unless civic infrastructure keeps pace with educational expansion, the transformation risks becoming uneven.

“Although Bhopal is called the city of lakes but 40 km from Bhopal is Sehore, which suffers tremendous scarcity of water. People here need to buy tankers for half the year. From March end we need to buy water from the water tanker facility, and their price starts from ₹400. By the time it’s peak summer, the price reaches ₹1000. I need one tanker per week to support my PG students,” informed a resident turned PG owner of Sehore.

The PG owner also mentioned how she saw the whole city coming up in the last five years from nothing, except acres of farmland. From small pan shops to tumble dry stores, simple kirana shops to mega marts, Jio Mart grocery service to Swiggy services, the village is growing in every way. Now, D-Mart has recently added auto services from the outskirts to the main Sehore to compete with the Sehore market and get customers to visit without any transport cost. She hopes that the greenery still remains and the peacocks around do not lose their home.

Another growing challenge is narcotics. Madhya Pradesh ranked among the top five States in cases of narcotics, with NCRB statistics registering increasing trends over the last decade. Since major cities such as Indore, Bhopal, and Sehore lure a high volume of youth, the potential for exposure of students to the use of drugs has increased.

“One of the main challenges is to keep a check on malpractices. My teenage son is misusing the advantages, not understanding that it’s a luxury to get facilities within arm’s reach. Now cigarettes are available even at a chips store, which was not the case earlier.”

Student voices

Riya Sharma, a second-year engineering student, VIT Bhopal, says, “When I joined in 2022, I was living in a hostel. After a year, I became a day scholar as I needed dry cleaning facilities, different food from the hostel, and more study time. The PG rent was ₹8,000 with food. Today it’s ₹15,000, and the food quality hasn’t improved. As a non-veg eater, there are hardly any options available. The PG owners are good in Sehore compared to other areas, as they do not demand three months’ advance, unlike other places.”

Arjun Singh, IISER Bhopal student (Bhauri), says, “In Bhauri, the rent for a single room was ₹6,500 in 2020; now even the bed and bathroom studio apartments are above ₹15000. But still it’s good as our parents can come over during exams, stay with us, and help. Also, a point to note, not a single house here has good ventilation. Hardly do you get to see any window.”

Parent perspective

Anil Kishore Mahoviya, Businessman, Bhopal, says, “Compared to other states, the prices for PG and room rents are better here. Also, people staying nearby, especially those who can afford quality education, now have a choice to send their children to these government and private institutes. Earlier, every good college was far. Either we had to travel to Delhi to study or Bombay to work.”

Educational institutions as frontline spaces

In response to rising concerns, the CBSE–NCB MoU, signed in 2024, formally positioned schools and colleges as frontline spaces for awareness, counselling, and early intervention against substance abuse. Acting on this framework, the Narcotics Control Bureau’s Indore division recently rolled out a city-wide campaign, where over 450 students of Delhi Public School took an anti-drug pledge. The drive mixed bike rallies, street plays, and even municipal waste vans repurposed as campaign vehicles during the Nashamukt Bharat Pakhwara, ensuring the message cut across social spaces.

Education-induced urbanisation has to be accompanied by robust infrastructure and effective social protections. “Educational hubs cannot remain insulated from these challenges. Where there is a concentration of youth, there is also vulnerability,” said the Additional Superintendent of Police in Sehore, underlining the need for vigilance alongside opportunity.

Suburban Bhopal, in a very real sense, is a living case study—where colleges and universities are not only churning out graduates, but also redesigning maps, reconstituting local economies, and transforming the social texture of an entire region.