Andhra Pradesh officials plan yet another metro study tour, this time in Denmark
VIJAYAWADA: The state government is all set to send a delegation to Copenhagen for studying the successful implementation of the metro project there. Principal Secretary (CRDA) Ajay Jain, Amaravati Metro Rail Corporation (AMRC) Managing Director NP Ramakrishna Reddy, CRDA Commissioner Cherukuri Sreedhar and Vijayawada Municipal Commissioner J Nivas will be part of the team which will fly to the Danish capital in the last week of May.“The Copenhagen metro project is considered the best light metro project in the world. We will study its implementation and see if we can adopt its practices in the execution of the Vijayawada light metro,” AMRC MD NP Ramakrishna Reddy said.
Interestingly, state officials have already visited China, Malaysia and other countries — besides touring within India — to deepen their understanding of the workings of medium metro rail projects.
Systra Group, which is preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the light metro project, had played a role in the design engineering of the Copenhagen metro, some of the stations of which are located underground.
It maybe noted that the AMRC too is planning to build a 1-km-long stretch of the Vijayawada metro near the airport in Gannavaram underground. The study tour comes at a time when the AMRC is mulling to extend the metro corridor from Gannavaram to Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS) to the State Secretariat in Velagapudi. “The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had previously prepared a DPR for two corridors in Vijayawada. Now that we are preparing it from scratch, we want to explore the possibility of extending it till the Secretariat. Systra Group has surveyed the area and will submit the DPR soon,” Ramakrishna Reddy explained. The DPR is expected to be ready by September.
The extension of the metro corridor till Amaravati will increase expenses significantly.
The light metro is expected to cost `200 crore per km. Covering the 15 km stretch between Pandit Nehru Bus Station and the Secretariat will escalate the initially proposed cost of the project — `5,000-`5,500 crore (for two corridors within Vijayawada) — by over ` 3,000 crore. Metro rail officials defended the proposal saying it would be beneficial for the state in the long run.
RPF for Vizag metro soon
The AMRC is gearing up to invite request for proposal (RFP) for the Vizag metro project. “The process of identification of the contractor for metro is at an advanced stage. We will issue the RFP notification to firms that filed Expression of Interest-cum-Request For Quotation bids, once the government gives a green signal,” Ramakrishna Reddy said. Though the State issued orders specifying the area under Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation was metropolitan area, the Centre wrote a letter to AMRC saying the entire city of Vizag was not declared metropolitan “which is a departure from practice being followed”. So the govt issued a GO.