Move aimed at meeting increasing demand for sand

Bengaluru, Jul 22 (DHNS): Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday directed officials to clear pending applications before the government seeking permission to establish manufactured sand (M-sand) units.

Siddaramaiah's direction came at a meeting of top officials from various departments that was convened here to discuss the modalities to reduce the demand-supply gap for sand.

While the demand for sand stood at 26 million tonnes, the supply stood at 14 to 15 million tonnes per annum.

The State Cabinet on Wednesday had discussed the issue and had decided to promote M-sand to meet the rising demand for sand.

Speaking to reporters after Thursday’s meeting, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said that as many as 6,500 applications seeking to establish M-sand units were pending before deputy commissioners for various districts. No permission had been given for establishing new M-sand units during the last one-and-a-half years.

At present, there were 35 M-sand units in the state and most of them are located in Bengaluru Rural, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, m and Tumakuru districts.

The total production of M-sand in the state stood at 5.2 million tonnes a year. A target has been set to increase the production to 20 million tonnes by giving permission to new units, he said.

The government will provide 5% subsidy on interest on loans taken from banks to set up the units. The rules pertaining to allocation of M-sand units will also be revised, he said. After the meeting, Minister of State for Mines and Geology Vinay R Kulkarni said that only M-sand will be used for construction of government buildings, bridges and other works.

Quality testing

Kulkarni had recently told reporters in Hubballi that 68 new M-sand units would be started in two-three months. The government would offer 10 acres each to the existing M-sand plants to double their production. The price of M-sand would be 50% less compared to that of river sand. Quality testing laboratories would be strengthened to ensure production of good quality M-sand. Besides, awareness programmes would be organised across the state to popularise its uses.

“Once the production of M-sand reaches the level of meeting the total demand for sand, we can think of banning extracting sand from river beds, which would also help environment protection,” Kulkarani had said.