If things go as per the plan, then Visakhapatnam city will have a metro rail network in the next 8 to 10 years.
But the project hinges on the approval of the revised Detailed Project Report (DPR), which is ready, and will be submitted to the State government shortly. The revised DPR is pegged at about ₹14, 300 crore.
The metro rail project is part of the commitment made in the AP Reorganisation Act of 2014, and it is a collaborative project of both the Union and the State Governments.
The ground work and survey has been on since 2015, but due to some delay in both the governments, the project has slowed down. Now the AP Metro Rail Corporation is ready with the DPR and as per the new report, metro rail will span over about 76 km, passing through the city, in four corridors.
Speaking to The Hindu, the Managing Director of AP Metro Rail Corporation, U.J.M. Rao, said one corridor will be from Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to Kommadi Junction, spanning about 34 km, and the others are Gurudwara in Seethammdhara to Old Post Office with a length of about 5 km, Thatichetlapalem to Chinna Waltair of 6.75 km and Kommadi Junction to Bhogapuram airport, which would span over 30 km.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is very keen about this project and monitoring it closely, he said.
‘Need of the hour’
According to Mr. Rao, the metro rail project is the need of the hour, as the city is growing exponentially.
It is affordable, swanky, safe, fast mode of transport, hassle-free, pollution-free, reliable, comfortable and energy saver.
In India there are close to about 29 cities, where there is metro rail. In about 15 cities they are already operational in phases and in others they are either in construction phase or planning stage.
Talking about the efficiency and effectiveness of metro rail projects, he said, “The estimate is that it can ferry about 60,000 people in one direction in one hour. In Visakhapatnam, our estimate, once all the four corridors are operational, it would cater to about at least 5 lakh commuters on a daily basis.”
As per the DPR, the Visakhapatnam project will have two cars of 200 capacity each, which means it can ferry 400 passengers at time. While in cities such as Delhi it is 400 per car.
All the cars are driverless and will run on remote control and each can run independently. So if one breaks down, the other can continue its journey.
The cars will run on electricity and operate on third rail technology, with traction at the bottom and not on the overhead.
According to Mr. Rao, the duration of frequency for each train has been projected for 8 minutes, which can be adjusted to 5 minutes during peak hours and the proposed operational time has been fixed from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The minimum average distance between each station in the first three corridors is around 1 km and even less at times and in the fourth corridor (Kommadi to Bhogapuram) the average is around 1.5 km
Economic advantage
As per the MD of the AP Metro Rail Corporation, it has been seen that with the operation of the metro rail, there has been spurt in the GDP at least by 8 to 10% in the cities, where they are operational.
This is called transit oriented development, as development is directly linked to logistics and transport.
Most importantly, metro travel is said to be the safest and reliable mode of transport.
As per DPR, there is provision for construction of station buildings, with a minimum of six floors. While two floors will be used for the station purposes and its utilities, the others can be let out for commercial space. This will also generate revenue, as in total about 54 stations in all the corridors are being planned.
Moreover, the use of metro rails will bring down vehicular pollution and load of vehicles on road.
PPP mode
“Once the DPR is approved, we will go for global tenders and the project will be built on public private partnership (PPP) mode. There will be some share from the Union and the State Governments, but the share component will depend on the offer and terms and condition of the bidding company. The project will be leased out for 33 years and, as per a conservative estimate the break even period is 15 years, said Mr. Rao.
The estimated project time is at least five years for the first three corridors and another three years for the fourth one. But the fourth one depends on the construction and operation of the Bhogapuram international airport.
