Vuda mulls LRTS for easing traffic

Faced with the burgeoning population and the growing vehicular traffic which are choking the port city, the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (Vuda) is exploring the feasibility of introducing a Light Rail Transport System (LRTS).

Delhi-based Consultancy Engineering Services Limited (CES) has been shortlisted for undertaking a detailed financial and technical feasibility study of the proposal.

Speaking to Business Standard, D Sreenivasulu, vice-chairman of Vuda, said that CES was shortlisted during the competitive bidding for undertaking a detailed financial and techno feasibility study of setting up a LRTS in the city.

"We expect the company to submit its report to us in six months time. Later, we will put forth the report to the state government and the railways for their final decision on the mobilisation of funds and the project implementation," he added.

Notwithstanding the expansion of the main thoroughfares, traffic snarls and sound and air pollution have become the order of the day, thanks to the urban population explosion coupled with a sharp rise in the number of vehicles in the recent years.

With the roads unable to brook to the growing vehicular traffic, Vuda, in its role as a nodal agency, sees an alternative public transport system in the LRTS.

The problem has been compounded with the growth of satellite townships at Sagarnagar, Madhurawada, Vepagunta, Simhachalam, Gajuwaka and Pendurthy and the relocation of slums on the city outskirts "� all leading to a larger number of people taking to various means of transport to commute to the city everyday.

Vuda estimates that nearly one-and-a-half lakh people travel to the city from its suburbs and the industrial belt of Gajuwaka everyday, choking up the roads and increasing the journey time.

Though the idea of a circular railway system was mooted some years ago by reviving the defunct Old Town Railway Station, it did not gather steam. The idea was finally given up after the Container Corporation of India (Concor) took over the old railway station for setting up of a Container Freight Station (CFS).