Mangaluru: M Purushotham Kottari- president of the Civil Contractors Association-Mangaluru said, ” The non-availabilty of sand in the district has affected the building construction in City and DK very much. The district administration’s decision to allow movement of sand to other regions in the State had affected local construction works. Our daily requirement is around 2,000 tonnes, but unfortunately we are not even getting that for the last few weeks. If this situation continues further we will stage indefinite protest till we get sand”.
He further said, ” Large amount of sand is hauled by trucks to places like Hassan, Bengaluru, Shivamogga, Mandya, Kerala and other places illegally, where huge profits are made. Due to this supply of sand to these out-of district places, earlier we used to get four-five truckloads of sand per day, but now we could be lucky to get one truck load in spite of waiting for a week. This is not right. The sand contractors were giving priority to orders coming from other regions while ignoring local requirements. We have to wait for a week to 10 days to get one truckload of sand. due to this sand prices had increased drastically with each load now costing Rs. 2,500 against Rs. 650 four months ago. The helpline set up by sand transporters has been helpless to us”
“Nearly 300 lorries, each carrying around 25 tonnes of sand, were moving to Bengaluru and other parts of the State every day. Such large extent of sand extraction would harm the river ecosystem. The transport of sand by land by trucks to all these places via Charmadi Ghat has affected traffic jam on the ghat section, and also resulted in damage of the ghat section stretch. The administration should look into this. We will request the district administration to take steps to prevent over-extraction of sand, and also illegal transport of sand over the limit by trucks to other places. While there is shortage of sand locally to take care of building constructions, the district administration should stop supplying sand to other places, and give priority to local civil contractors” Kottari added.
Meanwhile, while civil engineering contractors are claiming that construction activities have been hit due to the non-availability of sand because of the inter-district movement of sand, the Mines and Geologies Department asserts that enough sand is available. According to Deputy Director of Mines and Geology N. Ramappa, the medium and coarse sand was available at Rs. 3,000 per truckload while fine sand was available at Rs. 3,500. This rate was for transportation to areas within 15 km from the lifting point and would increase if the distance is more. Bulk permits were being issued online for sand transportation, which were valid for 24 hours. There had been no reduction in the movement of sand, with 500 lorries moving every day. Sand extraction in Gurupura, Adyar and other regions coming in Coastal Regulatory Zone limits would stop for nearly two months from June 15. Other than that there is plenty of sand for everyone, even for localites, had said Ramappa.