The Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore clarified on Monday, December 11 that no proposal for the Visakhapatnam metro rail project had yet been submitted by the Andhra Pradesh state government. In September this year, the Metro Rail Corporation had announced that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the metro rail project was ready but needed state cabinet approval. For reasons best known to it, the Jaganmohan Reddy government does not seem to have moved on the issue.
Rajya Sabha Member from the opposition Telugu Desam Party Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar asked the Union Minister if the state Government of Andhra Pradesh had submitted any proposal regarding the project or sought loan assistance.
According to the Union Minister’s written reply, no proposal for the Visakhapatnam Metro Project was submitted by the government of Andhra Pradesh for approval. “In accordance with the provisions of the Metro Rail Policy, 2017. The Union government would consider providing financial assistance to urban rail-based systems based on feasibility of the proposal, necessity, and availability of resources,” he added.
The metro rail project in Visakhapatnam city has not seen any progress for seven years now. The previous TDP government had prepared a DPR of a route length of 42 km and called for tenders in 2017.
In March 2019, the Export-Import Bank of Korea which was earlier interested in the project walked out of the project after YSRCP formed the government. TheMetro Corporation prepared a new DPR with a longer route length of 76 kilometers with three corridors in September and the Chief Secretary Jawahar Reddy held a meeting with the officials and reportedly asked them to expedite works regarding pending technical evaluation works by January 2024.