3 months ago
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The ambitious Visakhapatnam Metro Rail (VMR) task has reached a cardinal milestone. If everything goes according to the timelines acceptable by the stakeholder departments, onshore acquisition for this mega task is apt to statesman successful April 2026.
As portion of the progress, officials held ‘public consultation’ meetings astatine Asilmetta and NAD Junction present connected Tuesday (February 10, 2026) to interact with the radical whose houses oregon businesses volition beryllium affected by the metro obstruction routes.
The meetings are a indispensable measurement earlier the authorities tin get immoderate onshore from backstage individuals for the much-hyped project, which has been connected insubstantial for the past 14 years.
So far, 5 specified meetings person been held crossed the metropolis since mid-2025 to speech to radical surviving on the projected 3 metro corridors spanning implicit 46 km.
A peculiar squad called RISES (Research and Infrastructure Survey and Engineering Services) conducted nationalist consultation meetings connected Tuesday and collected feedback from 88 project-affected radical from Corridor-1 and Corridor-2, retired of a full of 286 radical crossed the 3 corridors who volition beryllium straight affected by the project.
After completing these meetings, RISES volition hole a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) study and taxable it to the Visakhapatnam Collector.
The task squad said that their main extremity is to usage arsenic small backstage onshore arsenic possible. Currently, the program requires a full of 99.2 acres of land, but astir of it already belongs to the government.
Speaking to The Hindu, RISES Director A. Madhav Reddy said, “Our SIA enactment is astir complete. We volition beryllium capable to taxable this SIA study to the Visakhapatnam Collector by the extremity of this February. SIA is simply a mandatory signifier arsenic per the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, for immoderate large projects. As per our preliminary assessments based connected our meetings, much than 70 per cent of the attendees are successful enactment of the task and we person to compile each the opinions and information from our meetings. Our sole purpose is to trim the request for backstage land.”
After receiving the SIA study from RISES, the Visakhapatnam Collector volition nonstop it for ‘Expert review’. A peculiar committee (expert committee) comprising a scientist, a societal expert, and 2 affected residents volition cheque the SIA report. After getting support from this adept committee, the study volition spell to the State government. If everything looks good, the authorities volition officially denote the commencement of onshore acquisition.
Speaking to The Hindu from the State secretariat successful Vijayawada, an authoritative of the Land Acquisition and R&R Department said, “For Visakhapatnam Metro Rail, the onshore acquisition process has not yet begun. The State authorities is waiting for a ceremonial petition missive from the Visakhapatnam territory medication for onshore acquisition. If the timeline continues, we volition spell for an authoritative notification for onshore acquisition, perchance from the caller fiscal year, April 2026.”
