CHENNAI | June 28, 2017: Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday launched a website -- www.tnsand.in -- and a mobile application - tnsand -- exclusively to cater to the demands of the public and the construction industry for uninterrupted supply of sand.
The website will be operational from July 1.
"The public and sand truck operators can buy sand only online. The move is aimed at meeting the requirements of end-users and to ensure unhindered supply at a reduced cost," said an official statement.
Interestingly, Palaniswami inaugurated the scheme an hour before the Tamil Nadu assembly was to discuss the demand for grants for the public works department, the portfolio held by him.
The PWD is holding a training programme for all stakeholders for three days starting Wednesday.
Industry sources say the Tamil Nadu government takes a cue from Telangana, where an exclusive portal for sand sale management and monitoring system is available for registration, online booking-cum-track order, and inter-state sand transportation. Details of stockyards, available quantity, booked and delivered quantity on the portal are a hit among the operators.
"The Tamil Nadu government's initiative, a long-pending demand of the sector, will help reduce long wait at buy sand quarries and stockyards," Tamil Nadu State Sand Lorry Owners' Association president S Yuvaraj told TOI.
Currently, it takes a fortnight to load sand from the quarry after reaching the riverbed. Industry has been protesting the official apathy in streamlining the sector. Developers and sand truck operators associations have called for a day-long hunger strike in the state on July 6.
The demand is to open more quarries, loading of sand without hiccups, better cooperation from the administrative machinery, 24- hour surveillance in all quarries and stockyards to check unauthorized movement. "The collusion of local politicians and outsiders at quarry sites see a surge in price of load of sand to Rs 40,000, while the government price is Rs 1,600," Yuvaraj said.
Non-availability of sand has been a cause of worry. Transparency on the government's website is expected to change the situation. "There are only 28 quarries now and mostly on the Cauvery river near Trichy. The government should open 70 more quarries to meet the demands of northern state, in particular from the Pennar, the Palar and the Kosasthalaiyar rivers. We are glad that a website, one of our key demands, has been launched," Builders Association of India former president S Radhakrishnan said.
In the last four years, more than 90 quarries were operated and were under the clutches of sand mafia. Industry players heaved a sigh of relief after law enforcement agencies arrested sand mining baron, Shekhar Reddy in March. Two months later, chief minister Palaniswami announced that all sand quarries would be closed down in the state in three years and government would take up mining, storing and selling sand at cheaper rates. He urged the builders to go for an alternative for sand - manufactured sand, which is the crushed aggregates of hard granites.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)