Government plans sand depots, tobring back loading firms

CHENNAI: In a decision that is likely to generate a fresh controversy over river sand mining, the government plans to set up stockyards and revive the system of commissioning loading contractors at quarrying sites to restrict the entry of trucks to dry

river courses

.

The move by the public works department has already raised eyebrows, with sections of industry expressing fears of monopolisation and irregularities in the market.

The government is considering a proposal to open sand stockyards or depots within a radius of 2km to 4km from the sand quarries, officials said. The loading contractors will extract the sand and transfer it to the depots.

“We will soon issue tenders for the contractors,” an official said. He did not explain how the firms would transport sand to the depots or if the move to protect dry river courses would be limited to trucks that transfer sand to the market.

Limiting the number of trucks to the river courses will increase the environmental sustainability of sand quarrying, another official said.

“A contractor’s job will end with transporting sand to the depots,” he said. “Only the

PWD

will sell sand, at rates the government prescribes.”

The PWD currently allows firms, based on online registrations, to directly transfer sand to trucks from river courses.

Sand lorry operators are wary of the proposal. “If there is poor monitoring, there is a high possibility of irregularities and a

market monopoly

, which has been the case for more than a decade,” said

R Panneerselvam

, president of the Tamil Nadu sand lorry owners welfare association. “There should be documentation of volumes of sand quarried and deposited in the depots.”

Ten sand quarries are operational in the state, yielding a total of 2,500 to 3,000 loads of sand (1 load = 200cft) per day.