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Bumpy ride for metro rail works
Vijayawada: The much-touted metro rail project on the corridor- 2 at the Pandit Nehru Bus Station-Nidamanuru section seems to be on a bumpy ride in the wake of strong opposition from the villagers. The public hearing was conducted at Nidamanuru village on the city outskirts on Friday, but it turned out to be a stormy affair due to protests from the residents.
Vijayawada: The much-touted metro rail project on the corridor- 2 at the Pandit Nehru Bus Station-Nidamanuru section seems to be on a bumpy ride in the wake of strong opposition from the villagers.
The public hearing was conducted at Nidamanuru village on the city outskirts on Friday, but it turned out to be a stormy affair due to protests from the residents.
Over 60 acres of land was identified in the village limits for the construction of a coach factory and several houses may have to be pulled for the metro rail to chug in on the route.
Leaders of the Nidamanuru Farmers Association staged a protest stating that the compensation offered by the government basing on the book value was a raw deal.
The government was offering a pittance for the lands worth crores of rupees, association spokesman Sunkara Narayana lamented.
Besides the poor compensation for properties, the villagers are also expressing fear over the pollution of drinking water sources in view of the coach factory coming up.
Besides, the coach factory which requires two lakh litres per day will trigger acute drinking water crisis in the area, the villagers said.
The effluents released from the factory will pollute ground water, Narayana said. The plight of Machineni Venkata Satyanarayana, a vegetable vendor, sums up the mood of the whole villages.
“It’s my daily grind to feed my family by running a wayside vegetable shop. Now it will go for the metro rail, robbing me of my source of living”, he said.
In this backdrop, a public hearing was conducted in the village on Friday came in handy for the villagers to vent their feelings.
E-tenders were already invited for Metro Rail works worth Rs 1,800 crore. The tenders were invited a month ago for two corridors viz Pundit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS) – Nidamanuru and PNBS-Penamaluru.
While the first corridor covers 13 km, the latter measures 12 km. As per an agreement, the Metro Rail Project should be executed by August next.
The metro rail is supposed to run in the bus station-Nidamanuru section by the end of 2018. It is unlikely that the project will meet the deadline given the roadblocks it is facing.
