Vijayawada Metro Rail project on track

Works on the prestigious Vijayawada Metro Rail project are going on at a brisk pace. The project was awarded to the E Sridharan-led Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), keeping in view its successful execution of the Delhi Metro Rail project.

True to his style of functioning, Sridharan, popularly called the Metro Man, visited the city a few weeks ago. After that visit, work on the project has been going on briskly.

RVR Associates, a firm assigned with the responsibility of conducting household and traffic surveys, has got on to the job.

The surveyors will collect details of each family in the city like how many members are daily commuters, their present modes of conveyance, their expenditure on local transportation and whether they would travel by Metro Rail after its inauguration as well as the details of vehicular traffic on various roads.

After these surveys are over there will be three more topographical, environmental and soil surveys.

“All these five surveys will be completed by February, and based on them, a DPR (Detailed Project Report) will be readied within a month,” said P Ranga Rao, project deputy director.

Rao dispelled fears that the width of the two lifelines of the city the MG Road (Bandar road) and the Karl Marx Road (Eluru road) would come in the way of this project.

He clarified that even though these roads have not been widened, they could take up the project and finish it within the deadline of three years.

Rao also disclosed that Sridharan will visit the city soon to inspect the progress and to hold talks with concerned officials to see that the first Metro Rail in the city starts running by 2017.