Doors seem to be closing on Andhra Pradesh government in implementing the Metro Rail Projects proposed in Vishakapatnam and Vijayawada. The State government’s Metro Rail Adviser, Sreedharan had announced that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for both the projects will be submitted by March 31st.
According to the State Reorganization Act, the Union government should bear the expense of the metro projects. However the Center had allocated just 5.63 Crore to each of these projects. It will cost 200 Crore to lay one Kilometer of Metro Rail which means even 100 meters can not be done using these funds. May be the DPR and consultant charges will also be not met.
Andhra Pradesh government now have the option of taking up this project on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis or PPP basis. Both are not easy in the wake of the state finances. We will have to see if Chandrababu Naidu manages to take off these projects some how!
