Sreedharan-led team in Vizag to explore metro project

An expert team, headed by E Sreedharan, principal advisor to the AP government on metro rail projects, on Tuesday arrived at Visakhapatnam for two-day visit to study the feasibility of a metro rail in the city.

"Normally, these projects are viable for more than 3-million-people cities. But now, governments want metro projects even for smaller cities, so we are planning to take up the metro rail project at Visakhapatnam," Sreedharan said.

If the government takes up the project both at Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada simultaneously, the cost would come down by 15 per cent, he added.

The team will take six months for the feasibility study and the detailed project report. After that, it would take three years to complete the first phase works, he said. Initially, it would propose a 30-km-long project and the priority would be to link the railway station with important business centres. Each km will cost Rs 200-210 crore, and the project would come above ground.