VIJAYAWADA: The State government on Wednesday issued an order introducing the Sand Mining Policy-2019, which will come into force on Thursday. The new policy aims at addressing the issues of indiscriminate mining of sand, black marketing, hoarding, skyrocketing sand prices, artificial supply shortage and cross-border transportation. As reported by TNIE on Wednesday, the price of land has been fixed at `375 per tonne (inclusive of applicable taxes and fees) at the stockyards across the State.
As per the new sand policy, the AP Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) Ltd will undertake sand quarrying and supply sand to the customers on behalf of the government. The plan is to achieve sustainable sand mining by ensuring compliance with environmental regulations. It also aims at supplying sand at affordable prices and generating more revenue through its sale.
All vehicles carrying sand from sand reaches to stockyards and subsequently from stockyards to end consumers will be equipped with GPS devices and registered with APMDC Ltd/Director of Mines and Geology.
The sand will be supplied to the end consumer from the specified stockyard at the price fixed by the government plus transportation charges.
The price of the sand should be credited directly to the treasury account of the State government through net banking/debit card/credit card/other online methods or through Mee-Seva centres by the customers.
