The closure of sand quarries in Tiruchi and Karur districts in the wake of searches carried out by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has pushed up the prices of manufactured sand (M-sand).
Sand quarrying operations on river beds came to a grinding halt since the ED officials carried out searches at about 40 locations in different parts of the State in the second week of September. The workers engaged by the contractors, who were given the task of sand excavation from the sand quarries, fled the spots soon after the arrival of ED officials. The ED officials have confiscated hard disc of computers, CCTV recordings, bill books and other documents from the quarries and sale depots.
No sand quarry, except for those meant for bullock carts at Thalakudi and Madhavaperumalkoil, in Tiruchi, have resumed operations so far. Similarly, the sand quarries on the riverbed of the Cauvery near Mallampalayam and Nanniyur in Karur district have also remained closed. It has left the builders, promoters, engineers and individual house builders to bank on M-sand and and Plastering manufactured sand (P-sand) as alternatives to river sand. This has pushed up the prices of M-sand and P-sand.
The lorries and trucks, which were engaged for transporting sand, have been diverted to transport M-sand and P-sand from the stone quarries in Karur, Perambalur and Pudukottai districts.
According to industry sources, the cost of a unit of M-sand has gone to ₹3,800 from ₹3,400. Similarly, the cost of a unit of P-sand went up by ₹500. One load (four units) of M-sand is quoted for ₹15,500, which was sold for ₹14,000 three weeks ago.
“We have to complete our projects in a time-bound manner. Hence, we switched over to M-sand due to the short supply of river sand in the market,” says I. Napolean, past Chairman, of Builders’ Association of India, Tiruchi chapter.
He said that the prices of M-sand had gone up in the last two to three weeks. However, most of the flat promoters, who did not want to wait long, have been getting M-sand from Karur.
A truck operator said that most of the individual house builders, who wanted to build their houses only with river sand, had stopped the construction activities due to its shortage.
