VIJAYAWADA: Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd, a part of the Jaypee Group, has emerged as the successful bidder, by quoting Rs 1,528.80 crore for all the three packages for two years, for the implementation of the upgraded sand policy of the state government. With this, the revenue generated by the State through the sale of sand is set to be increased by more than cent per cent a year.
The state government, which got Rs 161.30 crore in the 2019-20 and Rs 380 crore in the 2020-21 (upto February, 2021) financial years, is now set to get Rs 765 crore on an average from sand sale every year.
Though the YSRC government rolled out a new sand policy in September 2019, it received criticism from customers due to hardships in online booking and delay in getting the construction material. Later, it constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) and upgraded the sand policy based on its recommendations to ensure transparency in mining and supply of sand and issued an order in November, 2020.
After dividing 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) — the AP Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Metal Scrap Trade Corporation (MSTC) in January, 2021 for selection of eligible agency to undertake sand mining, storage and sales for two years in all the three packages.
Later, the MSTC invited tenders and examined the technical qualification of all the bidders and confirmed Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd as the successful bidder as the company quoted the highest for all the three sand packages for two years.With Krishna and Godavari rivers falling in the Package 2, the bidder quoted Rs 745.70 crore followed by 477.50 crore for Package- 1.
Though mining can be carried out in Godavari river in reaches of East Godavari and in Nagavali and Vamsadhara rivers in Srikakulam district, the availability of sand is less in Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts in this package. The Package-3 consists of Rayalaseema and Nellore districts, and the company quoted Rs 305.60 crore because of the less availability of sand.