Public Works Department has resumed loading of sand at Kondayampettai sand quarry on the Coleroon on the outskirts of the city after identifying a parking area for lorries.
Loading of sand at the quarry was suspended last Wednesday after a pile-up of hundreds of sand lorries on Tiruchi-Chennai Highway and a protest staged by a section of lorry drivers and operators against “inordinate delay” in loading and police action against the lorries parked on the highway.
A senior PWD officer told The Hindu that tokens were being issued to the lorries at the parking area to regulate the queue to load sand.
The PWD started reopening quarries in Tiruchi region on May 10 after all the quarries across the State were shut on April 28 following a Madras High Court order against mechanised mining in certain quarries. Quarries which were functioning with permission for mechanised quarrying prior to the court order were being reopened in a phased manner.
The number of functional sand quarries in Tiruchi district has been increased to seven. As on Tuesday, sand quarries were functioning at Viragalur, Thiruvasi, Kiliyanallur, Kondayampettai, Manamedu, Silaipillaiyarpudur and Sirugamani. Another quarry at Kariyamanickam would start functioning on Wednesday or Thursday, PWD sources said.
The rush of sand lorries, however, continues at the quarries in the region. On an average, only about 200 to 250 lorries are loaded at each of these quarries a day. The average demand for sand in the State is about 15,000 loads a day.
As quarries have not been reopened in other parts of the State, lorries from Chennai and even southern districts were queuing up at the quarries here.
Until the closure of the sand quarries in the State, sand quarries in the Tiruchi region were mainly catering to the central and western districts, they said.
Operations at two more quarries which were reopened at Sinthalavadi and Mayanur in Karur district have been temporarily suspended over the past few days due to a protest from lorry operators against the locals’ claim for preference in loading.
Three more quarries
PWD sources also said three other quarries would start functioning at Unniyur, M. Pudur and Musiri in Tiruchi district from June 1 as amendments had been made to the environmental clearance from State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority, allowing use of excavators. Proposals had also been forwarded to the government for opening three quarries, they said.
