Priyanka Mary Francis, Deputy Commissioner, said on Friday that the district administration will have to restart the process to allow extraction of sand in Coastal Regulation Zone areas of Udupi district, following the recent judgement by the Chennai bench of National Green Tribunal.
The NGT had cancelled permits of sand extraction in CRZ areas in the district last month.
Ms. Francis said that starting the process will take about a month as proposals will have to be prepared and they will have to be cleared by experts. Then, they will have to be cleared at the State level.
Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister of State for Fisheries, Youth Services and Sports, who is also the district in-charge, will chair a meeting on the issue here on March 18.
The Public Works Department extracts sand in two sand blocks in non-CRZ areas, while two blocks have been given for widening works of national highway, and another block is being used for government projects.
She had written to the Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district, who had promised to provide sand for government works, if needed.
To a query on complaints that extracted sand was not pure, she said she had not received any complaints and the PWD was the authority to state whether sand was pure or not.
The PWD had said the sand extracted in Karkala was not up to the mark, but the sand extracted in Kundapur area was of good quality, Ms. Francis said.
