MBR City

Transport 2 min read

The Gold Line is approved: 42 km, entirely underground

A cut-paper cross-section of ground with a long tunnel bore and small station boxes hanging into it

The detail that separates this line from the two before it is not its length or its cost. It is that none of it is on a viaduct. The Gold Line is Dubai’s first fully underground metro line, running at depths of up to 40 metres.

What was approved

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum approved the Gold Line on 22 April 2026: 42 kilometres, 18 stations, an investment of around AED 34 billion, and a completion date of 9 September 2032.

It expands the network by roughly 35%, from 120 km to 162 km, and runs from Al Ghubaiba in Bur Dubai south-west to Jumeirah Golf Estates.

The interchanges are the design

The line connects to the Green Line at Al Ghubaiba, to the Red Line at Business Bay and Jumeirah Golf Estates, and to Etihad Rail at Meydan and Jumeirah Golf Estates.

That last pair is the one to notice. Etihad Rail is the national network; an interchange at Meydan means a passenger boarding in Fujairah or Abu Dhabi can reach the metro without crossing the city by road first. A metro line that terminates inside its own city is a transport project. One that meets the national railway is a piece of national infrastructure that happens to run under Dubai.

Who the Gold Line serves

The Gold Line connects 15 strategic locations, serves around 1.5 million people, and supports mobility across 55 development projects currently under construction. Authorities expect it to remove more than 40 million road journeys a year.

The timeline behind the timeline

Tenders are scheduled to be issued in 2026, with the contract award to follow in 2027. A 2032 opening from a 2027 award is five years of tunnelling — which, for 42 km of bored tunnel and 18 underground stations, is the schedule rather than the ambition.

For anyone weighing a property decision against this line, the date that matters is the 2027 contract award, not the 2032 opening. Station locations are firm enough to price in only once the civil contracts are signed; before that, an alignment on a published map is a plan, and plans near Meydan have moved before.

Source: Government of Dubai Media Office checked against the source

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