A lot of hype surounds Hyderabad Metro Rail as it rolls out but what is the update on the Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada Metro Rail projects? Here’s it.

Every person in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada and in fact Andhra Pradesh is thinking about when will the metro rail project in Andhra Pradesh come about? The fact that the one in Hyderabad has already kick started amidst much fanfare adds to the curiosity. What we have from the information in The News Minute is that the State of Andhra Pradesh is gathering momentum in rolling out the metro rail projects in the cities of Visaakhapatnam and Vijayawada. Amaravati Metro Rail Corporation (AMRC) is the organization in charge of the ambitious project.

Visakhapatnam

In contrast to the one in Vijayawada, it has already been decided that the project will be undertaken in the PPP mode and the total cost will amount to 9000 crores INR. Korean EXIM bank has already showed interest for investing 4,500 crores in this project. The estimated distance will be 42.54 kilometers and it will stretch from Gajuwaka to Kommadi. Already 11 reputed national companies and 7 international companies have showed interest in the pre-bidding. Since the project is being undertaken on state government land, there is no hassle in terms of land acquisition and AMRC is doing everything to speed up the execution.

Vijayawada

The decision of how the Vijaywada metro project will be funded will wait till mid-2018 and whether it will be a PPP project or solely a government one is yet unknown. German Development Bank KFW had expressed interest in funding the project. Already detailed project reports have been solicited by AMRC from eight international consultants who have submitted an Expression of Interest. The AMRC had started works afresh after the cancellation of Metro Project by the state government due to financial and administrative reasons. Instead of a Medium Metro Rail, a light metro rail is proposed with a capacity of 200 to 220

There is an optimistic outlook to the projects which are taking longer than expected time, given the setbacks along the way. These included Center not finding the Vijayawada metro rail financially viable in May 2017 or cancellation of the MoU between Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and AMRC. Despite of all this, the pace looks bright and there is cause for hope for nearer future.

Source – The News Minute