The line opened in 1993 and crosses the city on a northwest–southeast axis and is generally coloured blue on Metro maps.

This option planned the construction of 11 stations: Sormovskaya, Sportivnaya, Kalininskaya, Kuibyshevskaya, Kanavinskaya, Gorkovskaya, Sverdlovskaya, Ploshchad Svobody, Republikanskaya and Sovetskaya.

In December 1990, the development of the Sormovo-Meshcherskaya line to the stations Yarmarka, Strelka, Meshcherskoe ozero and Volga was approved.

In January 1992, it was decided to rename the stations under construction: Kuibyshevskaya to Burnakovskaya, Kalininskaya to Burevestnik, Sportivnaya to Varya.

20 December 1993, the opening of two new stations of Nizhny Novgorod Metro - Kanavinskaya and Burnakovskaya which marked the beginning of the Sormovsko-Meshcherskaya line.