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Metals in the urban soils of industrial townships adversely affect human health and ecosystem. In the present work, surface and sub-surface soils colleaed at 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depth, respectively, in pre and post monsoon seasons from twenty sites in an urban industrial area adjoining New Delhi are studied for the total metal concentrations (Al, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, V and Zn) seasonal changes and pollution sources. Both surface and sub-surface soils are affected by high metal pollution with the contamination factor (CF) > 2 and the average pollution load index (PLI) of 2.77. The geo-accumulation index values of 6.6-8.2 (pre and post monsoon samples) for Zn, 6.7-8.2 for Cr and 5.6-5.1 for Cd in surface soils indicate extreme levels of pollution in the region. A total four metal sources, industrial emissions for Fe, Mn, Cu, Ni, Co and Cd, electroplating industry for Zn and Cr, geogenic for Al and V, and vehicular and biomass burning for Ba and Pb in the surface soils were identified using the principal component analysis. Industrial emissions, explaining 46% of data variance, are the major source of metals. Surface soils around small scale industries are more polluted with Zn, Cr and Cd (CFs = 25-31), and Cu and Pb (CFs = 7-11) and have high PLI (range: 3.28-8.77) compared to other sampling sites. Higher geo-accumulation indices and pollution load of metals in the urban soils are expected to have long term impact on human health, plants and crop productivity in this area. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.