The Mumbai Metro Line 2 (Yellow Line) is a rapid transit metro line of the Mumbai Metro in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The line connects Dahisar in the northwest with Mandale in Mankhurd, via Andheri, BKC, and Chembur in the east. Phase One of Line 2A was partially opened on 2 April 2022, from Dahisar (East) to Dahanukarwadi. Line 2A was fully opened on 19 January 2023 from Dahanukarwadi to Andheri (West) and consisted of eight new stations.
Construction on the first section of the line, called Metro 2A (between Dahisar and D.N. Road), began in November 2016 and was completed in April 2022. This section will be long, and comprise 17 of the 39 stations that form part of this route. The new section from Dahanukarwadi to DN Nagar, was inaugurated on 19 January 2023, by PM Narendra Modi. On 7 April 2026, a section of Line 2B from Diamond Garden to Mandale was made operational for passengers.
Planning Yellow LineLine numberStationOpeningDistanceFromTo2A2 April 202219 January 20232B8 April 202613 August 2026Total
Public private partnership with RInfra A long Colaba–Bandra–Charkop line was proposed as the Yellow Line in the original Mumbai Metro masterplan unveiled by the MMRDA in 2004. A long Bandra-Kurla–Mankhurd line and a line from Charkop to Dahisar were proposed as Line 3 and Line 4, respectively, in the same plan. In the updated masterplan, the proposed Charkop–Bandra–Mankhurd and Charkop–Dahisar lines were merged into a single Dahisar–Bandra–Mankhurd line, which would have been and had 27 stations. This was planned to be the second corridor of the Mumbai Metro. Like Line 1, this corridor was also proposed to be constructed on a public private partnership (PPP) model.
Then President Pratibha Patil launched the project in August 2009. The MMRDA appointed Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra), in consortium with SNC Lavalin Inc., Canada and Reliance Communication, through an international competitive bidding process to carry out this phase of the project, and the concession agreement was signed with the RInfra-led consortium in January 2010."Another R-Infra project heads for termination" . Business Standard. 18 December 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2012. The project was proposed to be implemented on build–operate–transfer (BOT) basis for a concession period of 35 years, with an extension clause of another 10 years. The MMRDA estimated the project would cost , while Reliance Infrastructure estimated it would cost 11,000 crore."Reliance Infra's Mumbai metro phase II faces cancellation" . Business Standard. 17 December 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2012. Construction was planned to begin in August 2010 and conclude by mid-2013. However, construction work had yet to begin by December 2012, leading to calls for Yellow Line to be cancelled outright.
The line's construction was handicapped by the lack of available land for carsheds at Charkop and Mankhurd; the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) laws forbade construction on the land that had been selected by the MMRDA. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) refused to give clearance for the depots. MMRDA officials plan to solve the problem by shifting the location of the proposed rake depot to Malwani, near Malad. The plot does not come under the purview of the CRZ laws and therefore will not require environmental clearances."MMRDA finds land for Metro II rake depot in Malwani" . Mumbai Mirror. 22 September 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2012. The MMRDA has said that they have not ruled out an underground line, claiming that they had considered a combination of an elevated and underground alignment but had deemed it impossible due to the large land requirement for ramps and slip roads.
On 6 September 2012, the MMRDA sent a letter to Reliance Infrastructure asking them to start work on the metro immediately or face legal action."Metro II delay: Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority warns of action". The Times of India. 15 September 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2012."MMRDA warns RInfra over delay in second Metro line". Hindustan Times. 15 September 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2012. In response to the letter, RInfra blamed the government and the MMRDA for the delayed construction work. They said that the government had failed to fulfill its contractual obligation to provide the necessary land, right-of-way permits and clearances."Metro’s second line project may get derailed". The Times of India. 17 September 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2012."Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Reliance Infrastructure on clash course over second Metro rail". The Times of India. 4 October 2012."‘No work unless state follows contract’". The Indian Express. 4 October 2012."Developer sticks to his guns, won’t start work on Metro-II". Hindustan Times. 4 October 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013. On 8 February 2013, then RInfra CEO Sumit Banerjee claimed that the project had not advanced because the MMRDA had failed to fulfill its share of the responsibilities. The state government had since been considering alternative sites for the depot, which might have led to complete change in the alignment of the line and could have required re-bidding for the project. On 9 August 2013, DNA reported that an MMRDA official had informed them that a plot that was to be used as the casting yard for Line 2, was planned to be marked for use as a casting yard for Line 3. The paper called the move "a clear indication" that Yellow Line"will not take off in the near future." Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan told the media on 30 August 2013 that "it is now clear that Mumbai's Metro II project will now not happen."
On 13 November 2014, Reliance Infrastructure announced that it had terminated the agreement between the MMTPL and the Maharashtra government. RInfra stated, "Due to non-fulfilment of various critical obligations by Maharashtra government and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the project could not take off. Even after four years, despite the best efforts of the Maharashtra government, various project impediments could not be resolved." The MMRDA issued a statement confirming that the agreement was terminated with mutual consent. The MMRDA also clarified that the Yellow Line project had not been cancelled and will be constructed by the Mumbai Metro Railway Corp. Ltd (MMRCL) under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model.
EPC model In September 2013, the MMRDA appointed RITES to study the feasibility of constructing the proposed metro line underground. RITES also studied the feasibility of extending the corridor and merging the Charkop-Dahisar metro, proposed as a separate line, with this project. RITES submitted its final report to the MMRDA in the last week of May 2014, concluding that constructing the metro underground and extending it up to Dahisar was feasible. The merged Dahisar-Bandra-Mankhurd line would be long and have 37 underground stations. The estimated cost of construction of this line was 28,900 crore, 134% higher than the originally estimated costs of 7,660 crore for the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd line and 4,680 crore for the Charkop-Dahisar corridor. RITES proposed the construction of a major car depot at Oshiwara and a minor car depot at Mandale, Mankhurd on sites that were a mix of publicly and privately held land. The extension of the line to Mankhurd was proposed to resolve land acquisition issues, as land was available for the construction of a depot at Mankhurd.
In June 2015, the MMRDA proposed building an line from Dahisar East to Andheri East, and a line from Bandra Kurla Complex to Mankhurd, as part of a plan to build 6 new metro lines at a total estimated cost of . The MMRDA approved the detailed project report for the line in August 2015. The report estimated the cost of the project as . On 15 June 2015, the MMRDA announced that it would combine the two stretches and implement the Yellow Line of the Mumbai Metro in three parts - Dahisar East-DN Nagar (Metro 2A), DN Nagar-BKC (Metro 2B), and BKC-Mankhurd (Metro 2C). On 1 July 2015, it was announced that the MMRDA was allotted a plot in Mankhurd adjacent to the Sion Panvel highway for the Metro carshed. The land was under dispute between the MMRDA and the State Home Ministry for the construction of a jail.
The plan was later modified to build the line in two sections - Dahisar-DN Nagar (Metro 2A) and DN Nagar-Mankhurd (Metro 2B). Metro 2A was approved by the Maharashtra Government on 6 October 2015. In November 2015, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) cleared the MMRDA's request to secure a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The Maharashtra Cabinet approved the Metro 2B corridor on 27 September 2016. Half of the project cost will be funded by the Centre and the State Government, while the remaining will be financed through loans from the Asian Development Bank and the New Development Bank. The Metro 2B corridor was proposed to be long and to have 22 stations. The project was estimated to cost 10,986 crore, including land acquisition cost of 1,274 crore.
In February 2020, the MMRDA metropolitan commissioner R.A. Rajeev, stated that Yellow Line would be identified as the Yellow Line. A study by World Resources Institute (WRI) India, published in May 2021, estimated that Metro 2A and Line 7 had the potential to create 1.1 million jobs in the city.
Elevated Metro 2B The elevated Metro 2B line received permission from the Central Railway (CR) to be built at a height of 22 metres over the Central Line to accommodate CR's plan to construct an elevated CST-Panvel high-speed rail line and an elevated CST-Kalyan line. The MMRDA objected to the height band due to concerns over difficulty involved in operating a metro line at that height as well as evacuating passengers to ground level in case of an emergency. The Central Railway later granted the MMRDA permission to build Metro 2B at a height of 13 metres, with the CST-Panvel elevated line proposed to take a height of 22 metres.
The plan to build Metro 2B as an elevated corridor faced opposition. Residents of SV Road gathered at the Sacred Heart Boys’ School in Khar to protest the Metro 2B project on 12 August 2017. Petitions against the project were also filed in the Bombay High Court by the Juhu Vile Parle Development Cooperative Housing Association, the Gulmohar Area Society Welfare Group, and the Balabhai Nanavati Hospital. Some Mumbai residents protested the project on 5 October 2017 at Santacruz and Mahim. Several celebrities including Javed Akthar participated in the protest. Metro 2B also faced legal issues concerning the section between Indira Nagar and Nanavati Hospital that passes through a funnel area of the Juhu Aerodrome.
In June 2018, the MMRDA filed an affidavit in the Bombay High Court stating that it had "taken into consideration all the aspects of the project, including the pros and cons of underground and elevated Metro, and have taken a conscious decision to go for an elevated Metro". The agency stated that there was insufficient land available to build the metro partly underground, as large quantities of land were required to build the ramps going underground and coming back overground. The agency also noted that an underground metro would take 2 years to build and would cost over 5.5 times more per kilometer than an elevated line. The MMRDA stated that the design of the metro was a "highly technical issue" and that the petitioners did not have the required scientific experience to evaluate it. In August 2019, the Court directed the petitioners to explain why they thought the MMRDA had selected an elevated line instead of an underground line, after the petitioner's advocate stated that he "had not come prepared" and did not know if there was a scientific reason behind the MMRDA's decision. The Bombay High Court ruled in favour of the MMRDA and dismissed all petitions against the Metro 2B project.
Cancelled stations