In a major development, the AP state government has decided to invite tenders for its prestigious Metro Rail Projects in both major cities Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada on Friday. Tenders will be invited for 40 percent of the project cost first, with a total cost of Rs. 21,616 crore.
Tenders will be invited for Visakhapatnam Metro Rail with a cost of Rs. 11,498 crore and Vijayawada Metro with a cost of Rs. 10,118 crore. The construction of these projects will be done with a 50:50 partnership between the central and state governments. It has been decided to give Rs. 4,101 crore from VMRDA as the state government’s share for Visakhapatnam Metro. Rs. 3,497 crore will be allocated from CRDA for Vijayawada Metro.
The government has already approved the first phase DPR of Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada Metro Rail projects. In the first phase of Visakhapatnam, 3 corridors of 46 kilometers will be constructed.
The first corridor will be constructed from Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to Kommadi, the second corridor will be constructed from Gurudwara to Old Post Office, the third corridor will be constructed from Thatichetlapalem to Chinawalther, the third corridor will be constructed from Kommadi to Bhogapuram, the third corridor will be constructed from 6 kilometers.
In the second phase, another corridor of 30 kilometers will be constructed from Kommadi to Bhogapuram. Foreign banks have already come forward to provide loans for Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam Metro Rail projects. AP Metro Rail Corporation MD Ramakrishta Reddy met with representatives of several foreign banks a few days ago.
Representatives of KFW, AFD, ADB, NDB, AIIB, JICA and the World Bank attended the meeting. Representatives of the respective banks inspected the proposed metro corridors at the field level in Vijayawada. It is estimated that the cost of the two metro projects will require a loan of Rs. 12,000 crore. It has been decided to raise a loan of Rs. 6,100 crore for Visakhapatnam Metro and Rs. 5,900 crore for Vijayawada Metro.
The MD of Metro Corporation has held talks with banks that provide loans at low interest rates. The representatives of foreign banks will soon hold discussions with the central and state governments. The government also intends to take up the Vijayawada Metro Rail in two phases.
Plans have been made to construct two corridors in the first phase and another corridor in the second phase. In the first phase, the metro rail project will be undertaken from Gannavaram to Pandit Nehru Bus Stand as Corridor 1A, and from Pandit Nehru Bus Stand to Penamalur as Corridor 1B.
In the second phase, it has been decided to construct the project from Pandit Nehru Bus Stand to Amaravati as Corridor 3. It has been proposed in the DPR that the first phase of Corridors 1A and 1B will be constructed for a length of 38.4 kilometers. It has been decided to construct the third corridor to be constructed in the second phase for a length of 27.5 kilometers.
