AP yet to submit revised proposal for Vizag metro project, RS told

Visakhapatnam: The state

government

is yet to submit the revised metro rail

proposals

pertaining to Vizag and Vijayawada cities as asked by the Union government, Hardeep Singh Puri, minister of state (independent charge) of Union ministry of housing and urban affairs, said in reply to a question asked by Rajya Sabha MP V Vijaya Sai Reddy in the Parliament on Wednesday.

The minister said the AP government

submitted

the proposals of rail-based mass rapid transit system for Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada in December 2015 and June 2015, respectively. “But they were returned in September 2017 with a request to review and revise in line with contents of the Metro Rail Policy, 2017. The AP government has not the submitted revised proposals till date,” added Puri.

He further said that the Union government approved metro rail projects for Bhopal (27.87 km) and Indore (31.55 km) with an estimated completion cost of Rs 6,941 crore and Rs 7,500 crore respectively, in November last year. “The share of the Union government in the form of equity, subordinate debt and pass-through assistance is Rs 4,657 crore for Bhopal and Rs 4,476 crore for Indore,” the minister informed.

The estimated cost of Vizag metro project is Rs 8,300 crore. The state government is supposed to bear about 52% share of the project through external commercial borrowing, while the successful bidder has to pump in the remaining money.