VISAKHAPATNAM
Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has stated that it had requested the Andhra Pradesh government to submit a proposal for the Visakhapatnam Metro Rail Project in September 2017, but no fresh proposal has been received so far.
This was confirmed in a written reply to a question by Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao by Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.
The Ministry stated that the Andhra Pradesh government had previously submitted a proposal for a metro rail network with a length of 42.55 km at a cost of ₹12,345 crore but has not pursued it later.
Under Metro Rail Policy-2017, the Central government offers assistance of 20% viability gap funding for PPP projects. The AP government has not utilized this opportunity so far.
In all, 23 metro rail projects have been approved since August 2017 by the Central government and the total cost of these projects in the country works out to about ₹2.51 lakh crore with assistance from the Central government.
Commenting on it later, Mr. Narasimha Rao said that the “lack of interest on the part of the present YSRCP and the previous TDP governments in the Visakhapatnam Metro Rail Project is shocking and deplorable. The lone mega city of Andhra Pradesh, Visakhapatnam requires world class infrastructure but the neglect by the State governments had resulted in chaos in the city.”
“I demand urgent action by the present State government to build a world-class metro rail network in Visakhapatnam,” he added.