Halfway through 2026, Dubai Metro’s Blue Line has passed the ~30% construction mark, with tunnel boring underway on the underground half of the route and viaduct segments rising along the elevated half. The line remains on track for its symbolic opening date: September 9, 2029 – twenty years to the day since the original metro carried its first passengers.
Where the work stands
The Blue Line splits its 30 km almost evenly between tunnel and sky: 15.5 km underground (serving the International City junction and its neighbouring stations) and 14.5 km elevated. The reported ~30% overall completion reflects heavy civil works in full swing on both:
- Tunneling – boring machines are cutting the underground section that culminates in International City 1, the line’s Y-junction station.
- Viaducts – pier and segment erection continues along the Creek branch through Festival City and Creek Harbour, and on the Centrepoint branch through Mirdif and Al Warqa.
Still ahead: track laying, power and signalling systems, rolling stock delivery, and the long tail of testing and trial running that precedes any passenger service. On metro projects the civil works are the visible half; the systems integration years are the quiet ones.
The two stations worth the wait
International City 1 will be the largest underground interchange on the entire network when it opens: more than 44,000 square metres of station box, engineered for 350,000 passengers a day. It is where the line’s two branches – one from Creek station on the Green Line, one from Centrepoint on the Red Line – merge into the trunk toward Silicon Oasis and Academic City.
Dubai Creek Harbour (carrying the Emaar Properties Station name) will be the tallest metro station in the world at 74 metres, designed by SOM – the architecture practice behind the Burj Khalifa. Renders show a landmark gateway structure for the Creek Harbour skyline rather than a conventional station shed.
What the Blue Line changes in 2029
This is the metro’s first serious push east, and the first rail access for some of Dubai’s most populous residential districts: International City, Dubai Silicon Oasis and Academic City move from bus-only to direct metro, alongside Festival City, Ras Al Khor, Mirdif, Al Warqa and Dragon Mart. Two existing stations get second lives as interchanges – Creek, today a quiet Green Line terminus, and Centrepoint, whose park-and-ride becomes even more useful as a transfer hub.
For students especially, the Academic City terminus is the headline: tens of thousands of university commuters currently dependent on buses and car-shares get a one-seat ride onto the network.
Dates and numbers to hold on to
- 14 stations: 9 elevated, 5 underground
- 30 km, Y-shaped, branches from Creek (Green Line) and Centrepoint (Red Line)
- ~30% built as of mid-2026, per RTA reporting
- Opens September 9, 2029
Our Blue Line tracker carries the current progress figure and the full station list, updated whenever the RTA reports movement. The station names remain “planned” until opening day – and given this network’s naming-rights economy, we would not be surprised if a few change before (or after) the ribbon is cut.