Free sand policy provides relief to common man, construction sector

Vijayawada: Common people, who are constructing homes and realtors are getting much relief with the free sand policy being implemented by the State government.

Though the free sand policy was announced in March, 2016, the government has made several changes and finally decided to collect transportation charges for supply of sand.

Truck load of sand available for only Rs 2,400 in Vijayawada

The price depends on the distance to be covered from the sand reach and varies from one place to other. Krishna district administration has recently revised the charges and fixed at very lowest level.

In Vijayawada city, people can get a six-wheel truck of sand for only Rs 2400 and a tractor load for Rs 1200.In Nuzvid and Gudivada, truck load sand is available for Rs 5,300 and tractor sand for Rs 1200. In the port town of Machilipatnam, lorry sand price is Rs 3,700 and tractor price is Rs 1700.

The district administration has recently fixed the prices. Sand plays very crucial role in construction activity. Krishna District Collector B Lakshmikantham is regularly reviewing the sand policy and fixing the prices basing on the information collected from various sources.

The officials have notified 15 open excavation sand reaches and 5 sand reaches under de-siltation process and total 20 reaches are notified announced District Collector B Lakshmikantham.

District level committees and mandal level committees are also appointed to monitor and supply sand in the district. Price Monitoring Task Force is appointed at mandal level with the officials of Revenue, Police and Panchayat Raj Departments as members and these committees will take action for violation of rules i.e. selling of sand for price.

The district level committee will fix the transport price for entire district. Sand transportation price is fixed at Rs 440 per tractor and Rs 1100 per six wheel lorry up to five kilo meters from the reach.

The price is fixed at Rs 660 per tractor and Rs 1100 for six-wheel lorry up to 10 km and if the distance is beyond 10 km Rs 30 will be collected for each kilometre for tractor and Rs 85 per six-wheeler truck.

Realtors, who are facing a hard time with slowdown of apartment sales, are now getting some relief with the free sand policy. K Satish, a builder in Ajit Singh Nagar area, said the prices of cement also came down giving some relief to the builders.

Meanwhile, the district administration has constituted three Task Force Multi Disciplinary Teams to check illegal
transportation of sand to Telangana State and also established four border check-posts in Dondapadu, Garikapadu, Polampalli and Rajupeta in this regard.

The District Collector in a statement said instructions were issued to install CC cameras in all sand reaches and border check-posts in the district.

By Md Ameen