India is witnessing rapid growth of inland cage culture to realize fisheries potential and at present around 14000 cages are in operation in reservoirs of India. Inclusion of species from the indigenous pool in cage culture remains as a challenge at commercial scale. Package of practices need to be developed for prioritized indigenous species for diversification of inland cage culture. The standardization of stocking density is a prerequisite for developing culture protocol for any species. The present investigation was carried out to optimise stocking density of Labeo bata for grow out in cages at Maithon reservoir, Jharkhand. Labeo bata 8.80+0.67cm, 6.18±1.32g were stocked in three stocking densities of 50m-3, 75m-3, 100m-3 for a period of 180 days in Galvanised Iron (GI) cages having effective water volume of 75m3. The fishes were fed with extruded floating feed at the rate of 5-3% of body weight twice a day. The growth and survival of L. bata at stocking density of 50m-3 was significantly higher (p<0.05) compared to other treatments. There was no significant difference in growth between the treatments 75m-3 and 100m-3. Weight gain percentage, specific growth rate, feed utilization and efficiency was significantly higher (p<0.05) in lower stocking densities i.e. 50m-3 as compared to 75m-3 and 100m-3 . Stocking density of 50m-3 was found better in terms of enhanced growth, survival and feed efficiency.