By Desaraju Surya
AMARAVATI: Metro Rail services in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada will become a reality only if Prime Minister Narendra Modi ultimately gives the green signal, that too as a special favour to Andhra Pradesh.
Otherwise, as things stand, Metro for these two major cities of Andhra Pradesh would probably remain off-track for some more years to come.
When he met Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar in New Delhi on March 6, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu reiterated the plea for 100 per cent Government of India funding for the two Metro projects.
However, the Centre disapproved the proposal and instead suggested alternative options, none of which the state could afford in its current precarious financial position.
But, the Chandrababu Naidu regime is said to be “not keen” on pursuing the Metro projects, particularly with the Prime Minister, because it has set “other priorities”!
While the Visakhapatnam Metro is found to be viable, the Vijayawada Metro still remains an unviable venture.
The Union MoHUA Minister proposed taking up the Rs 11,498 crore Visakhapatnam Metro in Joint Venture (JV) mode with a 40 per cent Viability Gap Funding equally shared by the Centre and the state.
In such case, the Centre and the state will have to shell out an upfront amount of Rs 2,300 crore each. The balance has to be secured as a loan.
The AP government then proposed that the VGF component be enhanced to 50 per cent, with a 25 per cent proportionate share between the Centre and the state.
The Centre was ready to concede this, but spending Rs 2,875 crore as its share seemed out of question for the state.
Besides, the state wants the Centre to secure the Rs 5,750 crore loan in the latter’s account so that it does not affect AP’s borrowing capacity.
The Centre, however, remained non-committal on this.
Unless this is sorted out, the project may not move ahead.
The state also came up with another option: of taking up the project in Public Private Partnership mode.
For this, the VGF component has to be 60 per cent and the state will have to bear Rs 3,450 crore as its share. The balance 40 per cent will come from the private player.
Here lies the real catch. For the VGF to be fixed at 60 per cent, the proposal has to be first approved by the NITI Aayog and later by the Department of Economic Affairs. Thereupon, it goes up to the Prime Minister for final clearance.
So far, the NITI Aayog has been approving 60 per cent VGF only for social infrastructure projects, mainly in education and health sectors.
Metro Rail doesn’t qualify under social infrastructure project. Nevertheless, the Chandrababu government is insisting that Metro Rail also be considered as a social infrastructure project because it is for “public transport”.
Given the complexities in taking the Metro projects forward, the Chandrababu government is said to have decided to place it on the back burner for now.
“The Centre is providing 100 per cent funds for Polavaram and Amaravati, two of our prime projects. Now, we want Central funds for the Banakacharla project. That is also our priority. So, let us go slow on Metro,” is what the powers that be are reasoning.
On the other hand, the Vijayawada Metro Rail may not happen, at least in the next 5-6 years, as it is basically classified as “unviable”.
The state government came up with the suggestion that Vijayawada Metro be extended to Guntur so as to make it viable.
“Any Metro Rail is only an intra-city project. It cannot be inter-city”, ruled the Centre firmly, virtually sealing its fate.