By the early 2000s, the need for public transit in India’s cities was becoming dire. The capital, New Delhi, already huge and sprawling, was choked with traffic congestion and air pollution. But when the Delhi Metro opened in 2002, there were few successful examples of public transit systems in countries at India’s level of development.
Today, the Delhi Metro is a global model. In March, the completion of a new line extended the length of Delhi’s subway system to 370km, for a total cost of roughly €9 billion. (Estimates for Dublin’s planned 18km MetroLink, connecting Dublin Airport and the city centre, vary from between €9.5 to €23 billion).
When the Delhi Metro opened, it represented a new dawn of modernity in a country where infrastructure projects were plagued with delays and corruption.
“It proved that a complex urban rail project in a low- and middle-income country can be delivered and operated to very high standards,” said Gerald Ollivier, the World Bank’s lead transport specialist for India.
The Delhi Metro is the world’s first railway project to be awarded carbon credits by the United Nations. The system is 33 per cent solar-powered, and its train cars capture brake energy in batteries. Last year, the trains ran 99.9 per cent on time.
Passengers navigate fare gates at a subway station entrance in New Delhi. Photograph: Karan Deep Singh/The New York Times
Floor stickers guide passengers in the New Delhi metro system. Photograph: Karan Deep Singh/The New York Times
But the Delhi Metro did not start off as a runaway success.
Initially, transportation experts were sceptical of rail-based mass transit in India. In Kolkata, the country’s first metro project was mired in costly delays and low passenger use since opening in 1984.
Delhi is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The subway had to snake through packed residential areas, busy markets, slums and some of India’s most iconic and ancient monuments.
Unlike London, New York and Tokyo, where subways have developed alongside city infrastructure for a century or more, the Delhi Metro was constructed from scratch in a bustling city.
Thousands lost homes and settlements during construction, especially lower-income and historically marginalised residents. The metro was required under law to provide compensation and alternative housing to those affected.
In October 2008, with parts of the system still under construction, a malfunctioning crane contributed to the collapse of a bridge portion in east Delhi, killing two people and wounding 17 others. The following July, another bridge under construction collapsed in south Delhi, killing five people and injuring 15 others.
The managing director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corp (DMRC) at the time, Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, took responsibility for the accidents and sent his resignation letter to Sheila Dikshit, then the chief minister of Delhi. She refused to accept it.
An engineer monitors data for the metro system in New Delhi. Photograph: Karan Deep Singh/The New York Times
Sreedharan, called the “Metro Man of India”, had earned a reputation for being a fearless leader with zero tolerance for corruption or political interference. He instilled a culture of professionalism, punctuality and discipline at the company, which is jointly owned by the Delhi government and India’s federal government.
Instead of hiring foreign consultants, he sent his deputies to study the best subway systems in the world and to bring the knowledge back to India. He hired contractors with experience with government agencies in relocating infrastructure. By the time he retired in 2011, the system had come to be widely perceived as a success.
Success depended both on timely delivery of the system and widespread use by locals. When the Delhi Metro opened in 2002, the whole experience of subways was new for many residents.
The metro hired drama troupes to organise street plays explaining the basics of the metro system. Commuters needed to acclimatise to new concepts like navigating escalators and elevators, passing through automated turnstiles and paying for a fare for each ride.
In the early years, commuters hoarded tokens, so the DMRC introduced souvenirs to manage pilferage. Then came paper tickets, preloaded smart cards and eventually digital fares.
Tripti Jain rides on the New Delhi metro system. Photograph: Karan Deep Singh/The New York Times
For years, the metro operated without basic public amenities. Even toilets were tucked away outside stations.
Now, stations host not only toilets, but also restaurants, police booths and kiosks selling clothes. Glow signs and colour-coded stickers on station floors guide commuters to different lines and landmarks.
The early onboarding of passengers translated into record adoption, and continued investment in new lines has sustained passenger numbers.
Experience
In a sweltering, chaotic city, passenger comfort and safety go hand in hand. The Delhi Metro has been a game changer for working women, who rely on its safety and predictability to go to work in and around the city, studies show.
Pedestrians dodge traffic at an intersection in New Delhi. Photograph: Karan Deep Singh/The New York Times
“It’s tough to imagine life as a woman in Delhi without the metro,” Tripti Jain, a 23-year-old toy designer, said. “It’s convenient, air-conditioned and I know a specific time that I will reach.”
Coaches are fitted with security cameras. Marshals prevent men from entering coaches reserved for women.
Though heavily subsidised, the metro remains too expensive for some residents. “The metro is the most efficient and easy way of travelling, but I would like it to be more cost-efficient,” said Janvi Jhamb, a 22-year-old student at the University of Delhi. August 2025 brought the first fare hike in eight years, with increases ranging from 1 to 5 rupees (roughly one cent to five cent) to cover maintenance and infrastructure costs.
What’s next?
Public transport in Delhi otherwise continues to lag. Experts describe a lack of planning and communication between the metro and agencies that run bus systems and build the city’s roads.
The DMRC knows “how to construct the system and run it very well, but their whole thinking is that buses are competing with them,” said Geetam Tiwari, an emeritus professor of transportation at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
To serve residents who can’t afford the metro or travel to areas outside its reach, experts say, Delhi must make its bus system more efficient and integrated.
“We continue to expand our metro network, but along the way we forgot about our bus-based system,” said Deepty Jain, an assistant professor of transportation at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
“You just cannot rely on one. One is not enough.”
But the metro has set a high bar of efficiency and professionalism for future public transit projects to clear, Jain said.
Compared with other subway systems, “we are still young in terms of time,” said Anuj Dayal, the principal executive director and chief of communications at DMRC. “In every other way, we are in the big league.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.