The Andhra Pradesh state government had sent a proposal for the metro rail project in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. The State government had asked the Centre to bear the total cost of the two metro rail projects, while promising to bear the cost of the land acquisition.
The state government proposed three corridors in two phases in Vijayawada and four corridors in two phases in Visakhapatnam. The Vijayawada project is estimated to cost Rs 25,130 crore, while the Visakhapatnam corridors is expected to cost Rs 17,232 crore.
The state government wanted the Centre to complete these two metro rail projects on the lines of the Kolkata project. In Kolkata, in 2017, the Central government had amended the Metro Rail Act and funded 100 per cent cost of the project. The Andhra Pradesh government is now asking the Centre to complete the two metro rail projects on the same lines.
Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Dr P Narayana, submitted a representation to Central Urban and Housing Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. The Central government is yet to react to the request from the state government.
The state government plans to have the first corridor in Vijayawada from Pundit Nehru Bus Station to Gannavaram on Eluru Road and the second corridor from the bus station to Penamaluru on M G Road. The two corridors together would cover 38.4 kilometers and would cost Rs 11,009 crore. The two corridors would also require 91 acres of land to be acquired at a cost of Rs 1,152 crore.
The third corridor in Vijayawada was proposed to Amaravati which would be at a length of 27.80 kilometers and is expected to cost Rs 14,121 crore. This would require 61 acres of land to be acquired at a cost of Rs 742 crore.
The Visakhapatnam metro rail would have four corridors in two phases. The first corridor would start from the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and end at the Kommadi Junction. The second corridor would start at the Gurudwara and end at the Post office and the third corridor would start at Tatichetla Palem and end at the China Waltair. The three corridors would be for 46.23 kilometers and would cost Rs 11,498 crore. This would require 99.45 acres of land to be acquired at a cost of Rs 882 crore.
In the second phase, the fourth corridor would start from Kommadi to Bhogapuram airport at a cost of Rs 5,734 crore. This 30.67-kilometer corridor would require 6.13 acres of land to be acquired at a cost of Rs 23 crore.
The Central government wants the two metro projects to be taken up and promised to acquire the land and hand it over to the metro rail corporation. The same efforts were made during the previous regime of the TDP between 2014 and 2019. However, the proposal was stopped by the successive YSR Congress government. Now, with the return of the NDA government in the state, the government had forwarded the proposal with a revised detailed project report (DPR).
