The Bus Rapid Transport System, one of the major infrastructure projects aiming to provide speedier, hurdle-free and cheapest transport facility to the denizens of this burgeoning coastal city, is expected to be completed by June next.
The much delayed project, which was to have been completed by 2010, is progressing at a painfully slow pace.
However, people are eagerly waiting to witness the BRTS corridors. Implementation of BRTS has been taken up as a high-capacity public transport system at an estimated cost of Rs 452 crore. The project’s cost is to be shared by the state and Union governments and the GVMC in the ratio of 20:50:30.
In view of futuristic road transport problems and to cut the transit delay between the fastest urbanisation growth areas of Pendurty, Simhachalam and Gopalapatnam, the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has decided to launch the project. According to officials, calculations of the vehicular traffic movement between the RTC Complex in the city to Simhachalam and Pendurty has grown four-fold in just five years. As both the areas are being developed for residential purposes, the GVMC has decided to introduce two BRTS corridors _ one of 21.3 km long from Pendurty to RTC Complex via Gopalapatnam, NAD Crossroads, Kancharapalem and the Visakhapatnam railway station, and the second from Pendurty to RTC Complex via Vepagunta, Gosala, Simhachalam, Adavivaram, Central Prison, Arilova, Hanumanthawaka Junction, Isukathota and Maddilapalam, a distance of 21 km.
The town planning wing of the Greater Visakha Municipal Corporation is unable to clear the area of slums. Though the GVMC built permanent houses for the slum-dwellers, politicians are coming in the way of slum clearance. Besides, there is an inordinate delay in acquiring some land from the East Coast Railway and the Navy. The issue has been resolved now, with the railways and Navy agreeing to part with their land in return for land elsewhere.