To Complete Pending Projects Maharashtra Developers Import Sand

Real estate developers in Maharashtra are now importing sand from Indonesia and Philippines, following acute shortage of the commodity to complete pending projects in Maharashtra.

A ship carrying 50,000 tonne of sand has arrived at the Mumbai port, Business Standard reported.

Due to the shortage, sand prices have touched Rs 13,000 per brass from Rs 5,000 per brass (100 cubic ft of sand is equal to 1 brass) .

However, now imported sand would cost about Rs 20,000 a brass, the report added. This import of sand is in addition to the supply from Dhule district of Gujarat.

Union Minister for Shipping Nitin Gadkari had recently said that real estate companies in India were planning to import about 1,50,000 tonnes of sand from Philippines.

The Maharashtra government had imposed several restrictions on sand mining sighting environmental factors but the Builders' Association of India (BAI) is of the view that there needs to be a complete review of the sand dredging policy.

Quoting BAI officials, the report said that according to the state policy, respective district collectors and the tahsildars are suppose to auction sand dredging contracts every year, but these officers deliberately have not conducted the auction. Thus, creating an artificial shortage, which forced sand dredger and sand trader to become sand mafia.

Sand dredging from river beds has become a problematic issue in India. Local governments have been accused by environmentalists of not paying enough attention to environmental problems created by dredging. They claim that bridges across the rivers are getting weaken due to the dredging activities.