Alleging that the YSRCP and the JSP were doing little to bring pressure on the Centre to fulfil the promises made in the Reorganisation Act, HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao on Thursday said the TDP government was ready to implement the Visakhapatnam Metro Rail and Kadapa Steel Plant projects in the PPP mode without the support from the Union government.
“It is shocking that both YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and JSP chief Pawan Kalyan are adopting a soft approach towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP,” Mr. Srinivasa Rao told the media here.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, he said, had already passed instructions to the officials to launch an exercise to explore taking up both the projects in PPP mode.
“The Cabinet has decided to go ahead with the Metro Rail project at a cost of ₹8,300 crore. The stone for the steel plant will be laid within a month for which the Rayalaseema Steel Corporation, a SPV , has been set up with former CMD of RINL , P. Madhusudan as the Managing Director,” he said.
The Metro Rail is proposed to be undertaken in three corridors spanning over a stretch of 42.55 km.
Attack on Jagan
Denying the allegations being levelled against the TDP over the attack on Mr. Jagan at the airport, Mr. Srinivasa Rao said the ruling party had expressed concerns over the incident at the Collectors’ conference held at Vijayawada. “It is unfortunate that Mr. Jagan declined to make a statement before the A.P. Police declaring that he had no faith in them at a time when the same force had provided security to him during his 3,000-km-long padayatra,” he said.
