TIRUCHI | July 26, 2017:

The online sale of sand launched by the State Government has made a steady progress in reducing the gap between supply and demand.

Though the benefit of online sale has not yet been transferred to the customers, the Mining and Monitoring Division of Public Works Department is expected to take a few more steps shortly to break the syndicate of sand suppliers.

According to official statistics, the total number of loads transported from 23 sand quarries across the State had been hovering around 5,500 loads a day till the second week of July since the launch of online sale. It has crossed the five digit mark now. It stood at 10,448 loads on Monday.

Sinthalavadi quarry in Karur district recorded the maximum of 710 loads, followed by Manamedu with 690 loads and Panayakurichi with 593 loads on Tuesday.

Since the government took over sand mining, sales and distribution across the State in May, about 2.78 lakh loads have been transported from various quarries. It has generated revenue to the tune of ₹ 24 crore by way of entry fee.

“A number of steps have been taken to bridge the demand-supply gap. The gap has been reduced to a great extent. We will bridge it further in a few more days,” A. Arun Thamburaj, Project Director, Sand Quarrying Operations, told The Hindu on Monday.

He said there was a need to open a few more quarries across the State to scale up sand quarrying. According to a rough estimate, the construction industry in the State required about 12,000 loads per day. The gap between demand and supply was just about 2,000. A few more quarries would be opened soon to meet the demand.

He said that the sand prices in the market had been closely watched. The prices should have come down to normal by this time. There might be a cartel controlling the sand prices. More steps would be taken to transfer the benefit to the customers, he added.

R. Ramachandran, Executive Engineer, Mining and Monitoring Division, PWD, Tiruchi, said that target had been fixed for each quarry. Each quarry should load at least 1,000 loads per day.

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