1984 – 2010
Pioneers
Kolkata (1984) builds India's first metro; Delhi Metro (2002) proves the model for the whole country.
The Big Picture
The Story in Three Phases
From two pioneering systems, to a spread across the country, to an explosive boom and the first RRTS.
2011 – 2019
Spread
Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Ahmedabad — metros reach a dozen-plus cities.
2020 – 2026
Boom & RRTS
The network roughly quadruples to ~1,070 km; Delhi becomes the world's largest single-city metro; Namo Bharat RRTS opens.
Year by Year
Milestones · 1984–2026
The key moments in India's metro & RRTS story. The line fills as you scroll.
City-wise
Metro Network by City
Operational metro length by city (2025). India runs ~1,070 km across 21 systems — the world's 3rd-longest, after China and the US.
| City | Metro length (km) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Delhi (NCR) | ~374 | Largest; ~46 lakh riders/day; soon world's largest single-city |
| Bengaluru | ~96 | Namma Metro; crossed ~10 lakh riders/day |
| Mumbai | ~90 | Expanding fast |
| Kolkata | ~73 | India's first metro (1984); ~7 lakh/day |
| Ahmedabad | ~68 | — |
| Hyderabad | ~67 | Among the largest PPP metros |
| Chennai | ~54 | — |
| Pune | ~31 | — |
| Kochi | ~28 | — |
| Lucknow | ~23 | — |
| Kanpur | ~16 | — |
| Jaipur | ~12 | — |
Approximate operational length (2025); networks are expanding continuously. Source: Wikipedia (Urban rail transit in India) / MoHUA.
- Still being built: beyond the operating network, metro projects are under construction in 20+ cities (counting both extensions in metro cities and brand-new systems). Around 10 cities are getting their first metro — including Surat, Thane, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Rajkot, Vadodara, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram and Prayagraj — so the map keeps growing.
Regional Rapid Transit
Namo Bharat (RRTS)
A new class of high-speed regional commuter rail between cities — faster than metro, run by the NCRTC.
- 82 km Delhi–Meerut — India's first RRTS, fully opened Feb 2026 (22 stations)
- 160 km/h Top speed — Delhi to Meerut in ~55 minutes (vs ~2 hours by road)
- 8 corridors Planned around Delhi NCR (next: Delhi–Panipat, Delhi–Alwar)
- What RRTS is: Regional Rapid Transit — high-speed (160 km/h) inter-city commuter rail, sitting between a metro and a long-distance train, run by the NCRTC.
- Not Indian Railways: metros and the RRTS are run by metro corporations and the NCRTC under the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs — see the dedicated Indian Railways page for the national network and the bullet train.