Few weeks ago, Centre wrote a letter to Andhra Pradesh government, in which it says that metro rail projects are viable only for the cities with more than 20 lakh population. Since, Vijayawada doesn’t meet that criteria Centre can’t fund the metro rail project. People of the state are very much disappointed and also fumed upon the Centre for dumping the project. But, it seems Andhra Pradesh government wants to go ahead with Vijayawada metro rail project despite objections from central government.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had a meeting with Sreedharan, the chief advisor of Vizag and Vijayawada metro rail projects on Friday morning. Chandrababu Naidu told him that he need not to prolong or shelve Vijayawada metro rail project keeping in view of Centre’s suggestion on its viability. He said a Japan based company Jaika is ready to fund this project. So, he assured Sreedharan that there will not be any shortage of funds for this project. Chief Minister asked Sreedharan to speed up the project and submit monthly report on the progress of this project. He asked Sreedharan to make sure that the project is completed and ready for commissioning before 2018 as decide earlier. So, it is clear now that Vijayawada metro rail project is still alive and will not be shelved even if the central government doesn’t funds it.