VISAKHAPATNAM: With the stage being set to locate the Chief Minister’s Camp Office in Visakhapatnam, the district authorities have laid emphasis on the development of urban infrastructure in the Smart City.
Beginning with giving a push to rapid transportation, plans are on the anvil to provide metro rail connectivity, which was proposed during the previous TDP regime and could not make progress.
Noticing its significance, the authorities are chalking out proposals to lay the foundation stone for the light metro rail project on January 15 next year. As per the master plan of MRTS (mass rapid transport system), there will be a light metro corridor and modern tram corridor and the total length of two corridors will be 136.95 km.
The project cost of the light metro project has been fixed at Rs 14,309 crore and that of the modern tram corridor will be Rs 5,323 crore. The detailed project report for 76.90 km light metro rail corridors has been prepared and it will be sent to the Centre for approval.It is to be remembered that the Visakhapatnam metro rail project was first mooted by the then TDP government in October 2016, and set up a special purpose vehicle to execute the project.
As part of it, proposals were made to take up light metro in 79 km in six corridors and modern tram in 60.20 km at a cost of Rs 8.330 crore. In total, the metro rail will be for 140 km from Anakapalle to Bhogapuram, where the international greenfield airport is coming up.However, the YSRC government revised the proposal and decided to go for a light metro rail project for a length of 79.91 km and modern tram for a length of 60.05 km.
