The Delhi Metro is a rapid transit system that serves Delhi and the adjoining satellite cities of Faridabad, Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Noida, Bahadurgarh, and Ballabhgarh in the National Capital Region of India. The system consists of 10 colour-coded lines serving 271 stations, with a total length of . It is India's largest and busiest metro rail system. The metro has a mix of underground, at-grade, and elevated stations using broad-gauge and standard-gauge tracks. The metro makes over 4,300 trips daily.
Construction began in 1998, and the first elevated section (Shahdara to Tis Hazari) on the Red Line opened on 25 December 2002. The first underground section (Vishwavidyalaya to Kashmere Gate on the Yellow Line) opened on 20 December 2004. The network was developed in phases. Phase I was completed by 2006, followed by Phase II in 2011. Phase III was mostly complete by 2021, except for a small extension of the Airport Line, which opened in 2023. Work on Phase IV began on 30 December 2019.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), a joint venture between the Government of India and the Government of Delhi, built and operates the Delhi Metro. The DMRC was certified by the United Nations in 2011 as the first metro rail and rail-based system in the world to receive carbon credits for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, reducing annual carbon emission levels in the city by 630,000 tonnes.
The Delhi Metro has interchanges with the Rapid Metro Gurgaon (via a shared ticketing system) and the Noida Metro. On 22 October 2019, the DMRC took over operations of the financially troubled Rapid Metro Gurgaon. The Delhi Metro's annual ridership was 235.8 crore (2.35 billion) in 2025. The system also has interchanges with the Delhi-Meerut RRTS, India's fastest urban regional transit system.
History Background
The concept of mass rapid transit for New Delhi first emerged from a 1969 traffic and travel characteristics study in the city. Over the next several years, committees in a number of government departments were commissioned to examine issues related to technology, route alignment, and governmental jurisdiction. In 1984, the Urban Arts Commission proposed the development of a multi-modal transport system which would build three underground mass rapid transit corridors and augmenting the city's suburban railway and road transport networks.
The city expanded significantly while technical studies and financing for the project were underway, doubling its population and increasing the number of vehicles five-fold between 1981 and 1998. Traffic congestion and pollution soared as an increasing number of commuters used private vehicles, and the existing bus system was unable to bear the load. A 1992 attempt to privatise the bus transport system compounded the problem, with inexperienced operators plying poorly maintained, noisy and polluting buses on lengthy routes; this resulted in long waiting times, unreliable service, overcrowding, unqualified drivers, and speeding and reckless driving which led to road accidents. The Government of India under Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, and the Government of Delhi set up the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on 3 May 1995, with Elattuvalapil Sreedharan its managing director. Mangu Singh succeeded Sreedharan as DMRC managing director on 31 December 2011.
Construction Phases
Initial construction When the project was originally approved by the Union Cabinet in September 1996, it had three corridors. In 1997, official development assistance loans from Japan were granted to finance and conduct the first phase of the system.
Construction of the Delhi Metro began on 1 October 1998. To avoid problems that plagued Kolkata Metro, which witnessed substantial delays and ran 12 times over budget due to "political meddling, technical problems and bureaucratic delays", the DMRC was created as a special-purpose vehicle vested with autonomy and power to execute the large project which involved many technical complexities in a challenging urban environment within a limited time frame. Putting the central and state governments on an equal footing gave an unprecedented level of autonomy and freedom to the company, which had full powers to hire people, decide on tenders, and control funds. The DMRC hired the Hong Kong MTRC as a technical consultant on rapid-transit operation and construction techniques. Construction proceeded smoothly except for a major disagreement in 2000, when the Ministry of Railways forced the system to use broad gauge despite the DMRC's preference for standard gauge. This decision led to an additional capital expenditure of .
The Delhi Metro's first line, the Red Line, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 24 December 2002. The metro became India's second underground rapid transit system, after the Kolkata Metro, when the Vishwavidyalaya–Kashmere Gate section of the Yellow Line opened on 20 December 2004. The underground line was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The project's first phase was completed in 2006, on budget and almost three years ahead of schedule, an achievement described by Business Week as "nothing short of a miracle".
Phase I
A 64.75 kilometer (40.23 miles) network of 59 stations was constructed in Delhi, encompassing the initial sections of the Red, Yellow, and Blue Lines. The stations were opened to the public between 25 December 2002 and 11 November 2006. Phase 1 NetworkNo.LineStationsLength (km) TerminalsOpening date1Red Line68.35ShahdaraTis Hazari25 December 2002 4 4.87Tis HazariInderlok3 October 2003 88.84InderlokRithala31 March 20042Yellow Line44.06VishwavidyalayaKashmere Gate20 December 2004 6 6.62Kashmere GateCentral Secretariat3 July 20053Blue Line2222.74Dwarka-KakrolaBarakhamba Road31 December 2005 66.47Dwarka Sector 91 April 200632.80Barakhamba RoadIndraprastha11 November 2006Total5964.75
Phase II A total of network of 86 stations and 10 routes and extensions was built. Seven routes were extensions of the Phase I network, three were new colour-coded lines, and three routes connect to other cities (the Yellow Line to Gurgaon and the Blue Line to Noida and Ghaziabad) of the National Capital Region in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Upon the conclusion of Phases I and II, the network's total length was and 145 stations became operational between 4 June 2008 and 27 August 2011. Phase 2 networkNo.LineStationsLength (km) TerminalsOpening date1Red Line32.86ShahdaraDilshad Garden4 June 20082Yellow Line56.38VishwavidyalayaJahangirpuri4 February 2009 915.82Millennium City Centre GurugramQutab Minar21 June 20101Chhatarpur26 August 2010911.76Qutab MinarCentral Secretariat3 September 20103Blue Line12.17IndraprasthaYamuna Bank10 May 2009 1012.85Yamuna BankNoida City Centre12 November 200922.28Dwarka Sector 9Dwarka Sector 2130 October 20104Blue Line Branch66.25Yamuna BankAnand Vihar6 January 201022.26Anand ViharVaishali14 July 20115Green Line1414.19InderlokMundka3 April 201023.41Ashok Park MainKirti Nagar27 August 20116Violet Line1315.34Central SecretariatSarita Vihar3 October 201034.82Sarita ViharBadarpur Border14 January 2011-Airport Express422.91New DelhiDwarka Sector 2123 February 20112Dhaula Kuan & Delhi Aerocity15 August 2011Total86123.30
Phase III
Phase I (Red, Yellow and Blue Lines) and Phase II (Green, Violet, and Airport Express Lines) focused on adding radial lines to expand the network. To further reduce congestion and improve connectivity, Phase III included eight extensions to existing lines, two ring lines (the Pink and Magenta Lines) and the Grey Line. It has 28 underground stations, three new lines and seven route extensions, totaling , at a cost of . The three new Phase III lines are the Pink Line on Inner Ring Road (Line 7), the Magenta Line on Outer Ring Road (Line 8) and the Grey Line connecting Dwarka and Najafgarh (Line 9).
Phase 3 networkNo.LineStationsLength (km) TerminalsOpening date1Red Line89.64Dilshad GardenShaheed Sthal(New Bus Adda)9 March 20192Yellow Line34.37JahangirpuriSamaypur Badli10 November 20153Blue Line66.80Noida City CentreNoida Electronic City9 March 20195Green Line711.19MundkaBrigadier Hoshiyar Singh24 June 20181–Punjabi Bagh West 29 March 20226Violet Line23.23Mandi HouseCentral Secretariat26 June 201410.97Mandi HouseITO8 June 2015913.56Badarpur BorderEscorts Mujesar6 September 201545.07Kashmere GateITO28 May 201723.35Escorts MujesarRaja Nahar Singh (Ballabhgarh)19 November 2018-Airport Express12.01Dwarka Sector 21Yashobhoomi - Dwarka Sector 2517 September 20237Pink Line1221.57Majlis ParkDurgabai Deshmukh South Campus14 March 201868.53Durgabai Deshmukh South CampusLajpat Nagar6 August 20181517.86Trilokpuri - Sanjay LakeShiv Vihar31 October 201859.63Lajpat NagarShree Ram Mandir Mayur Vihar31 December 201801.65Shree Ram Mandir Mayur ViharTrilokpuri - Sanjay Lake6 August 20218Magenta Line912.64Kalkaji MandirBotanical Garden25 December 20171624.82Janakpuri WestKalkaji Mandir29 May 20189Grey Line34.30Dwarka-KakrolaNajafgarh4 October 201910.89NajafgarhDhansa Bus Stand18 September 2021Total111162.375
Work on Phase III began in 2011, with 2016 as the planned deadline. Over 20 tunnel-boring machines were used simultaneously to expedite construction, which was completed in March 2019 (except for a small stretch due to the non-availability of land).Will not let funding row derail Phase-IV: Government , The Economic Times, 4 July 2017. Short extensions were later added to Phase III, which was expected to be completed by the end of 2020, but construction was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was completed on 18 September 2021 with the opening of the Grey Line extension from Najafgarh to Dhansa Bus Stand. An extension of the Airport Line to Yashobhoomi Dwarka Sector -25 metro station was later added, and it was completed on 17 September 2023.
Driverless operations on the Magenta Line began on 28 December 2021, making it the Delhi Metro's (and India's) first driverless metro line. On 25 November 2021, the Pink Line also began driverless operations. The total driverless DMRC network is nearly , putting Delhi Metro in fourth position globally among such networks, behind Kuala Lumpur.
The expected daily ridership of the network after the completion of Phase III was estimated at 53.47 lakh passengers. Actual DMRC ridership was 27.79 lakh in 2019–20, 51.97 percent of the projected ridership. Actual ridership of the Phase III corridors was 4.38 lakh, compared with a projected ridership of 20.89 lakh in 2019–20 (a deficit of 79.02 percent). The communication-based train control (CBTC) on Phase III trains enables them to run at a 90-second headway, although the actual headway between trains is higher because of the relatively low demand on the new corridors. Keeping the short headway and other constraints in mind, DMRC changed its decision to build nine-car-long stations for new lines and opted for shorter stations, which can accommodate six-car trains.
Phase IV
Phase IV, with a length of and six lines, was finalized by the Government of Delhi in December 2018. Approval from the government of India was received for three priority corridors in March 2019. Construction of the corridors began on 30 December 2019, with an expected completion date of 2026. The metro's total length will exceed at the end of Phase IV,Delhi Metro Phase-4 gets government nod , The Times of India, 6 January 2017. not including other independently operated systems in the National Capital Region such as the Aqua Line of the Noida-Greater Noida Metro and the Rapid Metro Gurgaon which connect to the Delhi Metro.Delhi Metro: DMRC to come up with elevated road network below these 3 new lines , The Financial Express, 21 December 2018.