VIJAYAWADA: Minister for municipal administration P Narayana said that the state govt has sent the master plan for Visakhapatnam Metro Rail project to the Centre.
He said that the works will be launched after getting clearances from the Centre.
Responding to queries raised by TDP members Palla Srinivasa Rao, Velagapudi Ramakrishna, Janasena member Konathala Ramakrishna in the assembly on Wednesday, the minister said that the govt would send revised Detailed Project Report (DPR) based on chief minister’s recent review in Visakhapatnam about Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP).
He said that there was no need for the members to worry about the DPR as they would take additional approval from the Centre once it cleared the previous one. He, however, denied the charge that DPR was not prepared during the previous YSRCP regime.
He criticized the previous regime for delaying the Vizag metro train project without sending the required inputs to the Centre despite repeated reminders. He said that the Centre has to fund the metro train projects in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada as per the AP Reorganization Act, 2014.
“The TDP govt had assigned responsibilities to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to prepare the DPR in 2014. DMRC gave a report in 2015 with proposals for the establishment of a medium metro with three corridors with a network of 42.5 km in relation to Visakhapatnam. We called tenders in 2019 but the subsequent YSRCP regime suspended the tenders delaying the project,” said Narayana.
He said that both Vizag and Vijayawada would have got the projects had the YSRCP govt acted swiftly. He said that after a delay of five years, the YSRCP govt roped in another agency to ready the DPR on the pretext of extension corridors from Visakhapatnam to Bhogapuram.
“Though the agency submitted the DPR projecting the metro cost at Rs. 14,300 crore in 2021 itself, the YSRCP govt did not send it to the Centre till 2023,” said Narayana.
He said that after the TDP-led NDA came to power, the chief minister requested the Centre to hand over entire metro project to the railway department to take 100 percent cost on the lines of the Kolkata Metro. He hoped that the Centre would soon clear the project.
