The Public Works Department has instructed manufacturers of M-sand to apply for approval from the PWD Assessment Committee to qualify for use in government projects.
In a circular, the PWD chief engineer has instructed officials to interact with the manufacturers for product approval. The applications should be submitted along with details of registration/licence and the facilities available including the machinery.
The manufacturers should submit test reports from the State/Central government laboratories such as National Test House or MSME laboratories, PWD SM&R Laboratory, and government academic institutions such as IIT, IIT-incubated laboratories, Anna University and government engineering colleges. The test reports should show compliance with specifications as per BIS standards.
The approval certificate would be issued by the PWD only upon approval by the PWD Assessment Committee. The executive engineer of PWD should inspect the manufacturing unit and site to verify the details furnished in the application for approval.
Periodic inspection
After approval, the nominated PWD engineer should carry out periodic inspection to see that the M-sand is manufactured as per approved specification. Whenever any deviations in manufacturing process/quality of the products are noticed, the committee chairman can cancel the approval, the circular noted.
The PWD has also instructed officials to identify and use good quality M-sand in all building works executed by the department.
The committee will issue product approval certificate with a validity of three years. After three years, they should apply for renewal.
