VACB looks into sand ‘theft’ from State land

Sand ‘excavated and sold’ from land meant for Telecom Park

An anti-corruption inquiry is on into the suspected theft and illegal sale of costly construction-grade sand from a vast expanse of government land earmarked for setting up a telecommunications technology business hub at Menamkulam in the capital.

The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has questioned several top officials of the Small Scale Industries Development Corporation (SIDCO), a State government-owned entity which has custody of the premises. The alleged felony is estimated to have caused a loss of around Rs.80 crore to the exchequer.

In 2009-10, the State government accepted a SIDCO proposal to start a Telecom Park in 25 acres of land owned by the defunct Kerala State Salicylates and Chemicals Ltd.

The project required the removal of an estimated 1.26 lakh cubic metres of soil from the undulating sandy terrain and refilling of the excavated area with red earth. The work was awarded to a private company for Rs.11 crore through competitive bidding.

The then Mining and Geology Director, K.O. Sooraj, objected to the contract on the ground that the company had been given the right to excavate and sell government sand valued at more than Rs.53 crore. The government cancelled the contract and ordered the project to be retendered.

However, the company commenced excavation and sale of sand on the strength of a court order. The VACB’s case was that the firm had excavated the sand in excess and sold the increasingly scarce commodity at a premium to builders through a network of underworld-linked sub-contractors, middlemen, and dumper truck owners during 2010-11.

The agency relied on the expertise of professors of the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, who used the latest land survey equipment to estimate the quantum of sand excavated from the government land. The VACB compared the expert report with the records maintained by the firm and SIDCO to arrive at their findings.