VIJAYAWADA: The State government is all set to hand over the sand mining operations to the Metal Scrap Trade Corporation (MSTC) by the end of March. Officials of the AP Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) said the MSTC, which was endorsed with the task of sand mining and supply, has already invited technical bids and will call for financial bids within a week. All the remaining formalities involved in the process of transferring the operations is expected to be completed by the end of March.
Speaking to TNIE, APMDC managing director G Venkata Reddy said the State government classified the sand reaches across the State into three packages — Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts (Package 1), West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam (Package 2) and Nellore, Chittoor, Kadapa, Kurnool and Anantapur districts (Package 3) — and the MSTC invited tenders accordingly.
After customers complained about the hardships in online booking and delay in getting the construction material, the State government, based on the recommendations submitted by the Group of Ministers, upgraded the sand policy, allowing people to book sand offline. It also tweaked the policy to ensure transparency in the mining and supply of sand.
The government has also decided to entrust the responsibility of sand mining and supply to Central agencies by taking away the responsibilities from the APMDC. Accordingly, it wrote letters to over a half a dozen Central agencies and finally entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the MSTC two months ago. Later, the MSTC expedited the process of bidding the reaches in three packages and once it completed the process, the APMDC will hand over the task of implementing the upgraded sand policy to the Central agency.
Asked about the current position of sand as the construction activity picked up momentum across the State, the APMDC managing director said the demand and supply are more or less the same. “As of now, we are able to mine 1.25 lakh metric tonnes of sand a day and the demand stands at 1.30 lakh metric tonnes a day. Thus, the pendency is less and we are able to deliver the construction material on the immediate day after booking. Moreover, we have 14 lakh metric tonnes of buffer stock and thus, we are in a position to meet the demand,’’ Venkata Reddy explained.
Sand situation
1.25 lakh metric tonnes of sand a day — production
1.30 lakh metric tonnes a day— demand
14 lakh metric tonnes Buffer stock of sand in the State