VIJAYAWADA | January 14, 2016:

The deadline to announce a new sand policy is fast approaching, and the government is likely to fix the maximum price for cubic metre at Rs.500, excluding the transportation and logistics costs.

Open auction
After a marathon cabinet meeting here last month, the government had backtracked on allotting sand mining to DWCRA groups and decided to come up with a new policy.

Initially, the deadline to announce the new policy was fixed as February 1 and the policy likely to come into effect from February 15.

The government further decided to go for open auction system of sand mining and anybody, including individuals and DWCRA groups, could participate in it.

Under the new policy, the bids would be allotted to persons or groups, which offer the highest premium to government after deducting the expenditure like loading, unloading, labour costs, etc.

The same would be applicable to those operating reaches in patta and private lands.

The government constituted a Cabinet sub-committee with Finance Minister, Irrigation Minister, Labour Minister, and Mines Minister to fix the price and finalise the modalities. The area, which facilitates mining for one lakh cubic metres, would be identified as a sand reach. Auctions would be conducted for reaches in tributaries and major rivers. The government earned nearly Rs.850 crore during the last 16 months from the sand sale and efforts were being made to generate more revenue under the new system. However, supplying sand to customers at affordable price and without taking much time would be a challenge, said a senior official from Irrigation Department.

Tenders
“Orders announcing the new price per unit would be issued in a couple of days. And once the new policy is finalized, tenders for auctions would also be issued,” he said.

There are nearly 375 sand reaches in the State, but e-auctions would be conducted for about 125 in the first phase.

Supplying sand to customers at affordable price and without taking much time is going to be a challenge
Senior irrigation official

(Source: http://www.thehindu.com/)