India's Operational Metro Network Grew From 248 km in 5 Cities in 2014 to About 1,170 km in 26 Cities by September 2026, and the Government Ranks It Third in the World

On 5 September 2026, speaking in Indore after an extended stretch of the city’s metro opened, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal said India’s metro rail network had reached 1,170 km across 26 cities. The Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government’s press office, records the 2014 figure as 248 km in five cities. The ministry counts India third in the world by operating length, after China and the United States.

How the total has grown

The ministry’s own releases give a run of figures. A PIB note of September 2024 counted 978 km in 23 cities. A PIB explainer of 9 August 2025 put the network at 1,013 km in 23 cities by May 2025, with average daily ridership above 1.12 crore (11.2 million), up from 28 lakh in 2013-14. It also gave the pace of new openings as about 6 km a month, against 0.68 km a month before 2014.

A PIB backgrounder of 15 March 2026 reported about 1,095 km in 26 cities, a total that includes 55 km of the Delhi to Meerut regional rapid rail, known as the Namo Bharat RRTS. It names Delhi and the National Capital Region, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune and Ahmedabad among the cities served. The reports of Lal’s 1,170 km on 5 September 2026 do not say whether that figure includes the RRTS.

Kolkata opened the first line in 1984

Kolkata’s Metro Railway was the first. Its opening section, 3.4 km between Esplanade and Bhowanipur (now Netaji Bhavan), began service on 24 October 1984, and PIB describes it as the first metro line in India. The Metropolitan Transport Project that led to it was launched in 1969. Metro Rail News reports that Indira Gandhi laid the foundation stone on 29 December 1972 and that construction began in 1973 to 1974.

Metro Rail Today put the Kolkata network at about 73.42 km on four lines as of late 2025. In 2024 the Esplanade to Howrah Maidan section opened, which PIB lists as India’s first underwater metro tunnel, passing beneath the Hooghly River.

Delhi’s first corridor, 24 December 2002

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was set up in 1995, with the Centre and the Delhi government as partners. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurated its first corridor, 8.3 km between Shahdara and Tis Hazari, on Tuesday 24 December 2002, and the Tribune reported that passengers could ride from the following day.

Delhi’s Magenta Line began India’s first driverless metro service on 28 December 2020, according to PIB. On 8 March 2026 two Phase 4 sections opened: 12.3 km of the Pink Line between Majlis Park and Maujpur-Babarpur, and 9.9 km of the Magenta Line between Majlis Park and Deepali Chowk. Japan’s aid agency JICA, which reported the opening, says Japan has been Delhi Metro’s partner since its beginning.

What the 2017 Metro Rail Policy set in place

The Union Cabinet approved the Metro Rail Policy on 16 August 2017. The PIB release of that day counted 370 km operating in eight cities, 537 km under construction in 13 cities and 595 km at planning or appraisal stage in 13 more. The 2025 and 2026 totals above are about three times the 2017 operating length, though they are counted by the ministry at different dates and the later ones include the RRTS.

The policy made private participation a condition of central assistance, either for a whole metro or for parts such as fare collection and operations. It listed three routes to central money: a public-private partnership with viability gap funding, a lump-sum grant of 10 percent of project cost, or 50:50 equity between the Centre and the state. It changed the test for approval from a financial return of 8 percent to an economic return of 14 percent, required a comparison with buses, light rail and trams before a metro is chosen, and made a transport authority and transit-oriented development (dense building along the corridor) compulsory. States must also plan feeder services within five km of each station.

PIB’s August 2025 explainer adds that the government has provided for domestic purchase of at least 75 percent of metro cars, and that state-owned BEML had supplied over 2,000 metro coaches by May 2024. It also says Delhi Metro runs a solar plant on a viaduct at Okhla Vihar and a 1 MW rooftop plant at the Khyber Pass depot; national solar totals are in tuput’s piece on India’s installed solar capacity. The main railway has its own record in Vande Bharat: the numbers and the electrification drive.

What the third place rests on

The ranking comes from the government. PIB’s 5 January 2025 note says India ranks third in operational metro length. Hardeep Singh Puri told the Rajya Sabha on 10 March 2025 that India has the third-largest operating metro system after China and the United States, and Lal repeated the ranking on 7 November 2025. On 5 September 2026 he put the US network at 1,386 km, which left India 216 km behind, and China at around 8,000 km.

The International Association of Public Transport (UITP) publishes the main independent count. Its Global Metro Figures 2024, released in May 2025, covers networks to 31 December 2023: China 8,788 km, the United States 1,359 km, Japan 973 km, South Korea 926 km and India 881 km, ahead of Russia at 646 km and Spain at 532 km. UITP leaves suburban railways out of its definition and measures double-track length. Lal’s figure for China is below UITP’s, so the two tallies do not use the same yardstick.

The ministry placed India fifth in November 2022, when Puri gave about 810 km in 20 cities and said India would pass Japan and South Korea to reach third. UITP’s end-2023 count has the same fifth place. The third place rests on the ministry’s later totals, the earliest that tuput opened being 978 km in September 2024. UITP’s brief gives no later figure, and tuput found no newer edition as of 10 October 2026.

What comes next

PIB says 38 metro projects covering 1,051 km have been sanctioned since 2014 at an estimated ₹3.44 lakh crore. In Chennai, the 118.9 km Phase II is under construction. On 27 July 2026 Minister of State Tokhan Sahu told the Rajya Sabha that Chennai Metro Phase I carries 3.14 lakh passengers a day, against the 15.69 lakh its project report forecast for 2026, about 20 percent. The reply listed feeder buses, e-rickshaws, shared bicycles, a unified smart card and UPI payments among the steps Chennai Metro Rail Limited has taken to raise use.

Lal said in Indore on 5 September 2026 that India would overtake the United States within two years and become the second-largest metro network, after China.