VIJAYAWADA: Even as Amaravati Metro Rail Corporation (AMRC) is in the process of identifying the contractor for execution of Visakhapatnam metro rail project, the announcement by the BJP leaders that the detailed project report (DPR) should be re-submitted in accordance with the Metro Rail Policy, 2017, has left officials fuming. However, the officials are in no mood to send a revised DPR and are even contemplating taking a legal recourse.
In the 17-page document ‘The Real Picture’, released by BJP in New Delhi on Friday, it is said: “Union government requested the State government on September 1, 2017, to re-examine and submit the detailed project report (of Visakhapatnam metro project) in the light of Metro Rail Policy, 2017, which came into force from August 16, 2017. The revised proposal is yet to be received.” The new metro policy mandates the private component in metro projects to avail financial assistance from the Centre.
This has angered the state government officials who are already executing the project under public private partnership (PPP) arrangement. “We have already taken up the project under PPP. In fact, it was the Union government which suggested in August, 2016 that the project be taken under PPP when we proposed 50:50 equity financing model between the Centre and State. So the question of sending a revised detailed project report does not arise,”AMRC MD NP Ramakrishna Reddy told TNIE.
He said that linking the projects with the new metro policy was a ploy to do away with providing financial assistance to Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada metros. The MD further pointed out that the two metro projects in the state did not fall under the purview of the new policy. “Any project proposed after the new (metro) policy which came into effect in August, 2017, should comply with it.
However, we submitted the DPRs for both the metro projects in 2015. It is the Union government that did not act on them till last year. So we are not going to resubmit the detailed project reports,” he explained.
“The contention here is the implementation AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 under which both the metro projects come,” the official added. “It shows that the Union government is not interested to help us and is just misleading people of AP.” Sources told TNIE that AMRC has already approaced legal experts to explore the option of moving to court. “The officials have spoken to a legal team, who said the issue can be challenged in the court of law. A decision will be taken soon,” a source said.
Meanwhile, the AMRC is going ahead with the plan to identify the contractor for the Visakhapatnam metro project. “We have already invited request for proposals (RFPs) and we are happy that some of the major players have responded. By the end of February or early March, we will finalise the proposals. We will go ahead with our plan since we have lost faith in the Union government,” Ramakrishna Reddy said.