THIRUVANANTHAPURAM | September 20, 2017:

The State government has decided to permit import of sand for construction purposes.

A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here on Tuesday decided to permit import of sand from countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia to meet the acute shortage of sand and address the serious environmental implications of river sand mining.

The meeting noted that there was no legal obstacle for import of sand. The Central government had sanctioned import of sand through the Kochi port. The State Mining and Geology Department’s permit is necessary for such imports. The department would issue permits to persons who wish to carry out sand imports. The State’s total requirement of construction quality sand is estimated at 3 crore tonnes. As things stand, only a minuscule portion of this demand is being met from domestic sources. This has resulted in acute shortage of sand, causing a crisis in the construction industry and a sharp increase in sand price. The price of sand at present is around 140 a cubic feet, an official press note said.

A meeting of Local Self-Government Department officials, chaired by the Chief Minister, decided to construct 11 state-of-the-art abattoir in the State using funds from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB).

The Chief Minister directed the officials to set up the first of the abattoirs in municipal corporations.Although the State had over 15,000 abattoirs now, there was not a single modern one among them, an official press note said.

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