VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has managed to get in-principle approval from the central sanctioning committee of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for its Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) proposal.

VMC Commissioner Natarajan Gulzar's detailed presentation before the committee in New Delhi on Monday almost clinched the issue, except that the central sanctioning committee was believed to have insisted on a few "guarantees" to be given by the State Government to make the project financially viable in the long run. This means that the ball is now in the court of the Government, and a decision on whether the "guarantees" can be given or not will have to be taken at the highest level.

`Pilot corridor'

In view of the central sanctioning committee's preference for funding a `pilot corridor' rather than several corridors at a time, the VMC has dropped the original plan to propose a total of six stretches each with a separate colour code.

Instead, the latest proposal put up before the central sanctioning committee focussed only on the `green corridor', which will be of a total length of 15.5 km and with a width of 30 metres to 60 metres.

It will begin and end at the City Bus Terminal, while passing through railway goods shed, railway station, C.K. Reddy Road junction, the removed railway track of Satyanarayanapuram, Madhura Nagar junction, Padavala Revu, Gunadala, Ramavarappadu Ring Road junction, Dr. N.T.R. University of Health Sciences, Benz Circle, Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium, Vijaya Krishna Super Bazar and old bus stand.

It will pass over two irrigation canals, i.e. Bandar Canal and Ryve's Canal, and is expected to be of help to those intending to reach, without much of a traffic snarl, places like the airport, medical college, dental college, veterinary science college, the proposed IT Park near Gannavaram and many other prominent business establishments, commercial centres, government offices, entertainment centres and the like.The VMC has pegged the total project cost at Rs. 152.64 crores. A major chunk of this, i.e. Rs.137.64 crores, will be spent on creating the infrastructure for the 15.5-km stretch at the rate of Rs.8.8 crores per each km.

The remaining Rs.28.4 crores will be spent on creating 40 bus stops of Rs.3 lakhs each, two parking lots of Rs.2 crores each, six foot-over bridges of Rs.1.2 crores each and 40 buses of Rs.40 lakhs each.The Centre will bear 50 per cent of the total project cost (Rs.76.32 crores), while the State Government will have to foot the bill up to 20 per cent (30.52 crores).

The remaining 30 per cent (Rs.45.8 crores) will have to be borne by the VMC.

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