CHENNAI: To ensure adequate supply and availability of construction materials within Tamil Nadu, the state government has empowered the Director of Geology and Mining to regulate the transport of key minor minerals, including M-Sand, metal jelly and rough stone, to neighbouring states and impose temporary restrictions, if necessary.
The government issued a notification amending the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transportation and Storage of Minerals and Mineral Dealers Rules, 2011, through an Extraordinary Gazette dated July 8, 2026. “Once the shortage is resolved, the ban will be revoked. We cannot impose a permanent ban on transporting any goods to other states,” a department official said.
According to the amended rules, the Director of Geology and Mining has been authorised to regulate the inter-state transportation of rough stone, khandas, boulders and value-added products derived from them, including M-Sand, metal jelly, ballast, millstones, hand chakais, and building and road construction stones, when they are transported beyond Tamil Nadu’s borders.
Department sources said there are around 3,000 rough stone quarries and more than 400 government-approved M-Sand manufacturing units in the state. A significant portion of construction materials produced in districts such as Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Theni and Coimbatore is transported to Kerala, while supplies from Krishnagiri cater largely to Bengaluru in Karnataka.
Quarrying/mining of minor minerals (sand, jelly, boulders, etc.) has long been under the Director of Geology and Mining – through the TN Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1959 – including leases, permits, quarry licensing. The 2011 Rules (which this notification amends) already covered illegal mining, illegal transportation, and illegal storage within the state, which includes crackdown on unlicensed quarrying or unaccounted movement of minerals inside TN.
Until now, the department could act against illegal mining/transport, but it didn’t have an explicit rule to restrict lawful export of minerals to other states purely to protect in-state supply/availability. The new notification enables it to monitor and control even the legal transportation of minerals.
“The department will now monitor the quantity of such metal jelly, ballast and other construction materials to other states. Whenever the materials transported to other states result in scarcity inside Tamil Nadu, we would impose temporary restrictions on such transportation to ensure sufficient availability of these materials within the state,” an official in the Geology and Mining department told TNIE.
Officials will take stock of the quantity of construction materials being transported to other states at TN’s border check posts.
The construction industry has long argued that large-scale movement of these materials to neighbouring states has resulted in shortages within Tamil Nadu, pushing up prices and increasing project costs by as much as 30%. Builders and industry stakeholders have been urging the government to regulate the outflow of construction materials to neighbouring states to stabilise domestic supply and prices.
While the rules have now been notified in the Gazette, the government is expected to issue a separate notification specifying the date from which the amended provisions will come into force. The announcement is expected to be made by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.
