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Gurgaon Metro project: 2019 plan, 2029 reality? How delays pushed back timeline; phase-1 stalled & no contractor yet
GURGAON: Dharam Vir
Sagar
, who has lived in Sector 4 since 1971, saw the city grow "in a way I never imagined". But this was, he says, an anomalous growth that is yet to correct itself.
"It happened just on one side of the highway," he says.
"I saw the city's metamorphosis from a place of open fields to its current skyline. But all the change happened on one side of the highway.
New and old Gurgaon became different places with the highway dividing them. The only thing that can change that is metro. But we're waiting," says Sagar, referring to the
Gurgaon Metro
project that has spent more than half a decade in the approval stage since its first proper route map (and DPR, or detailed project report) was drawn up in 2019.
Old, new & the gap
Connecting new and old Gurgaon and bridging the 'gap' that Sagar, who is in his 80s, speaks about, the corridor beginning from Millennium City Centre, crossing the highway and cutting an arc through old Gurgaon before crossing the highway again to terminate at Cyber City, will solve much of Gurgaon's connectivity problems and reduce the current, unsustainable dependence on cars.
But when will it take shape? Prolonged starting pangs means that's a hard timeline to predict.
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The most optimistic one is mid-2029, practically the end of this decade.
The delays, for a project that should have got top priority from the state and Centre, because of the city's rapid expansion, its criticality to the Delhi-NCR economy, and increasing struggles with local commute, are perplexing for Sagar.
"In the 80s, we would catch a local train and be in Old Delhi within an hour. Now, it takes more than two hours from here by car," he says.
And for lakhs of people, car translates into a cab. If one is living in new sectors near Dwarka Expressway, the nearest metro is City Centre, which is an expensive cab ride.
A corridor of solutions
Solutions, therefore, rest heavily on Gurgaon Metro, the 28-station corridor that has been carefully planned to link busy areas, residential hubs of future, and connectivity blind spots. Four years after the state drew up the DPR and alignment, the project received the all-important Public Investment Board (PIB) clearance from the Centre in Nov 2022 and Cabinet approval in June 2023.
The 28.5km corridor - along with a 1.8km spur to Dwarka Expressway - is to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 10,226 crore and has a construction timeline of four years.
It was originally planned as a fully elevated line with 27 stations. Later, a 1.4km extension was added to connect Sector 5 station with Gurgaon railway station, taking the total length to 29.9km and the number of stations to 28.
A large section of this corridor caters to congested parts of the old city, which have a wide mobility gap with the newer half of the city on the other side of the expressway.
The city was connected to Delhi through the Yellow Line in 2010 when the 5.3km city section opened.
Since then, the only addition to the metro network has been the 11.7km Rapid Metro line that runs Golf Course Road, with a loop to Cyber City from Sikanderpur.
To newer parts of the city and new sectors along Southern Peripheral Road, Rapid Metro offered some relief since the corridor was completed in 2017. But the old city remained disconnected.
What caused the delay
In the two years since the Cabinet nod, however, nothing has moved on the ground. Gurugram Metro Rail Limited (GMRL), the special purpose vehicle for the project was set up as 50:50 joint venture between the state and Centre only in Feb 2024.
Key leadership positions, including director (projects & planning) and director (rolling stock & electrical), remained vacant till Feb 2025, even though recruitment notices were issued in July 2024.
A senior GMRL officer said such initial challenges happen with any new organisation. "Setting up a new entity takes time. Statutory approvals, hiring leadership, and creating working infrastructure are time-consuming," the officer said.
Beyond the organisational setup, appointment of the Detailed Design Consultant (DDC) - a prerequisite for civil works - faced repeated setbacks. Tenders for hiring a DDC were floated in Aug 2022, March and May 2023, and July 2024.
While participation was low, the last round saw only one bidder. The bid was accepted, but the appointment got delayed because of the model code of conduct for the assembly polls.
A tender for appointing another DDC - to proof-check structural and civil designs - was floated in Dec 2024. That saw no response. The bid was reissued in Feb 2025, but there has been no progress since.
Appointment of a General Consultant (GC), the body that will oversee construction and quality control, is yet to happen.
Though eight bids were received, evaluation is still on.
Tenders for Phase 1 civil construction - covering a 15.2km viaduct, 14 elevated stations, and a spur to Dwarka Expressway - haven't moved beyond the evaluation stage.
The original deadline for bidding was April 22 this year. But after GMRL decided to include construction of the Bakhtawar Chowk underpass in its scope of work, the deadline was extended to May 15.
Eight firms submitted bids, which are being reviewed.
Progress is slower for Phase 2. GMRL floated a tender for geotechnical surveys only in May 2025. At the moment, the four-year construction timeline doesn't look like a realistic one.
If work does manage to begin for the first phase by year-end, sources said they expect the 15-station stretch to be commissioned by the end of 2028.
A wait too long
For those like Rakhi Sahu, a Ramprastha City resident for seven years, the wait seems interminable.
"Development reached our gates, but not metro. At present, it takes at least 45 minutes to reach Millenium City Centre from my society. Buses have negligible presence. Delhi Metro completely transformed how people commute in the capital. A similar transition is long overdue for Gurgaon," Sahu said.
Brig Sukhbir Singh (retd), vice-president of Palam Vihar RWA, wondered why govt did not just give DMRC the job of building the new corridor.
"Creating a whole new agency instead of using experienced ones like DMRC is a mistake. Work on Phase 1 hasn't even started. Who knows how long Phase 2 will take? Metro connectivity for older parts of Gurgaon has been pending for long, and road congestion is only getting worse. It's high time govt prioritised mass transit," Singh said.
Officials insist that while delays have occurred, the project is now moving in the right direction. "These are background planning and processes may not be visible to the public, but they are essential to avoid mistakes during construction," a senior GMRL officer said. Officials said the process for Phase 2 would also move quickly and they expect it to be completed by mid-2029. In Dec 2024, chief minister Nayab Singh Saini had promised that construction would begin on May 1.
With a concessionaire yet to be appointed for Phase-1, that is still months away. More time this takes, more it will test the mid-2029 timeline.
