Yellow Line (Kolkata Metro)

Under construction Yellow Line near Bagjola canal
Overview
Status	Under construction
Owner	Indian Railways
Locale	Kolkata Metropolitan Region, India
Termini	Noapara (west) Barasat (east)
Connecting lines	Blue Line Orange Line
Stations	14
Website	Indian Railways
Service
Type	Rapid transit
System	Kolkata Metro
Operator(s)	Metro Railway, Kolkata
Depot(s)	Noapara Depot Airport Depot (under construction) Barasat Depot (planned)
History
Planned opening	2025
Technical
Line length	21 km (13 mi)[1] Under construction: 7.04 km (4.37 mi) Planned: rest
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) broad gauge
Electrification	750 V DC[2] using third rail
Operating speed	80 km/h (designed)
Signalling	Kavach[3]
Route map Blue Line to Dakshineswar Noapara Depot Noapara Blue Line to Kavi Subhash Kestopur Canal Eastern Line to Sealdah Dum Dum Cantonment Jessore Road Jessore Road Orange Line to Kavi Subhash Jai Hind Airport Depot Birati Michael Nagar New Barrackpur Noai Canal Madhyamgram Hridaypur Barasat Eastern Line to Hasnabad Eastern Line to Bongaon Show route diagram (Click to expand) Show route map

Yellow Line is a rapid transit metro line of the Kolkata Metro currently under construction in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It will be 21 km (13 mi) long with 14 stations,^[1] running from Noapara to Barasat in North 24 Parganas. It is being built by RVNL, Senbo & ITD.^[4] It will run mostly on underground tunnels, the track will be elevated until Jessore Road from Noapara and then go underground towards Barasat metro station. It will have an interchange at the Kolkata Airport with Orange Line.

The stations of this corridor are:

Earlier, this line was planned to be divided into two lines: the up line and the down line. Both were meant to start from Noapara Metro Station and meet at Bimanbandar railway station. The up line was meant to run along with the Belghoria express and meant to have two new stations at Ramkrishna Pally and Shantinagar. The down line was meant to use Old Dum Dum Cantonment - Biman Bandar section's alignment, viaducts, and stations. However, the plan changed later, and now both lines will pass through the Dum Dum Cantonment - Bimanbandar section.^[5]

The project will be completed in three phases. The first phase of work from Noapara to Jai Hind was opened on 22 August 2025.^[6][7][8] In the second phase work from Jai Hind to New Barrackpore will be done and in the last phase from New Barrackpore to Barasat work will be done. But the development work from New Barrackpore to Barasat has been stalled for the last eight years since it was sanctioned because of encroachments.^[9] and the Airport Authority of India objected to the elevated stretches from New Barrackpore to Barasat. Later, after objections from AAI, a decision was taken to convert this into an underground stretch. On 29 June 2019 sanction for material modification for underground construction at an additional cost of ₹1,615 crore (US$190 million) was sent to the Railway Board by Metro. For this underground tunneling, AAI has agreed to shift its fuel tanks, buildings, and cables, and the project is expected to start in 2020.^[10]

An amount of Rs 227 crore contract to build this station, along with a mostly at-grade 2.16 km (1.34 mi) section from the Bagjola Canal to the existing ramp of the Airport Circular Railway track was awarded to Senbo Engineering Limited back in June 2011. Since then, the station's civil structure has been built, but work on the at-grade track section could not be started due to land acquisition issues along the line's proposed alignment. But the rehabilitation work was completed in 2020, and the work is going smoothly. Recently, girders were placed over Eastern Railway tracks. The metro station is set to be operational by Mid-2025.^[11][12] Construction of an underground integrated station for Orange Line and Yellow Line has begun at NSCBI Airport land just 150 metres (492 ft) away from the terminal building.

The development of New Barrackpore to Barasat was supposed to go elevated to cut down the expenses, but the stretch was in doubt due to a huge encroachment problem. But in February 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his nod to construct this stretch underground, giving respite to thousands of families who were supposed to be evicted for the development of the elevated stretch.^[13] To lower the cost of the underground work, latest technology TBM will not be used, instead old technology of cut and cover method will be used for metro.^[4]

However, in August 2025, before the inauguration of the Noapara–Biman Bandar section, it was reported that some changes in line alignment from Micheal Nagar to Barasat would be made which would be constructed underground using Tunnel boring machine that would lead to an increase in the total length of the line from 18 km to 22 km, adding three new stations beyond Barasat. These changes were made due to objections from AAI regarding the use of tall cranes and to avoid significant encroachment problems.^[14][15]

Yellow Line has been divided into three phases.

• Phase 1: Noapara - Biman Bandar (Under trials, commercial services to start from August-2025)
• Phase 2: Biman Bandar - New Barrackpore (under construction till Michael Nagar; Michael Nagar - New Barrackpur metro stretch resumes as AAI permits 18m cranes and external construction)
• Phase 3: New Barrackpore - Barasat (Planned, construction will begin soon)

• List of Kolkata metro stations
• Kolkata Metro Rolling Stock
• List of rapid transit systems
• Trams in Kolkata
• Kolkata Lightrail
• Kolkata Monorail
• Kolkata Suburban Railway