While many Vizagites are revelling in the New Year bash and festive joy to welcome 2023 till midnight on December 31, stakeholders of various State and Central government projects have high hopes on them materialising at least in the New Year.
While some are demanding the completion of ongoing projects like the Indian Institute of Management-Visakhapatnam (IIM-V) and cruise terminal in Visakhapatnam Port Authority premises, others are urging the government to start work on large-scale projects like Vizag Metro Rail, Bhogapuram Greenfield International Airport, redevelopment of Visakhapatnam to Bhimili road along the beach and floating restaurant on the abandoned Bangladesh ship at Tenneti Park among others.
Speaking to The Hindu, Andhra Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Limited (APMRDC) Managing Director U.J.M. Rao said, “Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is likely to start the Vizag light metro rail project works in 2023. The project report requires the approval of eight Union ministries. The ₹14,309 crore project will cover the metro track of 76.9 km in length.”
Start-ups
Andhra University Vice-Chancellor P.V.G.D. Prasad Reddy said that 2023 would be the year of Andhra University with start-ups on different themes and projects poised to come up on the campus. There would be pharma start-up eco system with the support of Visakha Pharma City named as “Element”, food start-up eco system as “Jenniber”, and music, sound engineering eco system with Saint Luke’s named as “Dolby Atmos” in the New Year. Drone technology eco system named as “ U- Flybus”, all around the periphery of AU campus bringing a paradigm shift in imparting education at AU, attracting the attention of the youth towards entrepreneurship with a scope to explore, experiment and create products in order to address social, psychological and emotional dimensions of living beings on the globe and thus become meaningful to themselves, Prof. Prasad Reddy added.
Steel plant privatisation
On the other hand, the RINL-Visakhapatnam Steel Plant staff want the government to stop privatisation of the steel plant in 2023. Visakhapatnam Steel Plant Protection Committee Chairman Mantri Rajasekhar said: “2023 is a crucial year for our steel plant family to save it from the prospect of privatisation. We will intensify our agitation, if the Centre does not revoke its decision on strategic sale of the plant.”
User charges
Meanwhile, almost all the Opposition parties in Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) have been lashing out at the government for levying user charges on garbage since it was approved in the GVMC Council meeting in April 2021.
GVMC corporator Peethala Murthy Yadav of Jana Sena Party, said that user charges on garbage was not only a burden on the people but also a major setback for the ruling YSR Congress Party.
This apart, some people from real estate firms, on the other hand, are eagerly awaiting to see Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s camp office in Visakhapatnam.
CREDAI honorary secretary E. Ashok Kumar said that as per the widely circulated speculations in 2022, they hope that Mr. Jagan would start functioning from Visakhapatnam in April 2023. “If that happens, our business will pick up like in 2020,” Mr. Kumar added.
Visakhapatnam City Police Commissioner Ch. Srikanth is optimistic of a decrease in the crime rate and decline in road accident fatalities in 2023 as new action plans are being prepared to curb road accidents and crime rate in the New Year.
