Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has directed officials concerned to speed up the auction of sand reaches, for which environmental clearances have been obtained, to overcome the sand scarcity in the state.
Speaking at a review meeting held with mining officials here on Thursday, he wanted the officials to examine the feasibility of enhancing the security deposit to curb speculative bidding for sand.
He directed the officials to see that sand was available for construction purpose in all the districts.
Officials told the chief minister that out of 36 new reaches for which environmental clearances were obtained, 18 reaches were auctioned and auctioning of the remaining reaches was under process.
Speaking to reporters later, mines and geology minister Galla Aruna Kumari said that officials seized 84,679 cubic metres of sand which was being illegally transported.
Of the seized sand, 50,000 cubic metres was diverted to government works like modernisation of the Godavari delta system, rural water supply schemes and other construction works taken up by government departments.
A case was pending in the Supreme Court over sand mining and the government was gathering information to provide to the apex court when the case came up for hearing after three weeks, she said.