RANCHI: The construction of govt infrastructure projects and private and commercial projects in Ranchi have been hit by the persisting shortage of sand for nearly a year. Now, after the annual four-month ban on sand mining by the National Green Tribunal has kicked in from June 15, developers and contractors are expecting that shortages will become more acute in the coming weeks.
Vikash Vijayvargia, a city-based contractor who builds overhead water tanks for state govt in the city and across the district, claimed that sand shortage have forced work to come to a halt for nearly four months now. “We were procuring sand from neighbouring Bihar at Rs 45,000 per truck (commercial tipper truck). This is an exorbitant price and is leading to project cost escalations. I have stopped work in my projects due to unavailability of sand,” he told TOI.
Sand shortages have also hit the construction of homes. Madan Kumar of Namkum has been forced to stop the construction of the second floor of his home. “I purchased a truck of sand in 2022 at Rs 25,000 for building the first floor of my home. This year, rates have gone up between Rs 42,000-Rs 46,000 for a truck of sand from Bihar. Several people in my locality were procuring sand from local suppliers who were mining sand from the banks of Tajna river in Khunti. But the administration has cracked down on them heavily a few months back and that supply chain has also been broken,” Kumar said.Rohit Agrawal, a city-based real estate developer, said unavailability of sand is causing delays in construction which would eventually lead to delayed handover of homes to their buyers.
Kishore Mantri, the president of Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FJCCI), said the sand shortage in Ranchi and the whole of Jharkhand was worrying. “We had met the officials of state mines and geology department several times in the past few months and wrote to them, urging to conduct the auctioning of sand ghats at the earliest. But were told that auctioning has been delayed due to pending clearances from the pollution control board and other agencies,” he added.
There are over 600 notified sandbanks in Jharkhand, of which 440 are under the purview of Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation Limited (JSMDC). Before the NGT ban kicked in last week, only 23 banks were operational.
“We are trying to get nearly 200 sandbanks, which are of the size of five hectares or less, after NGT ban ends later this year. For other banks, formalities such as MDO (mine developer and operator) selection, public hearings, environment management plan and obtaining of clearances such as consent to operate, consent to establish and pollution certificates are being obtained. The JSMDC’s licensed stockyards have enough sand in stock and the developers of major government infrastructure development projects have obtained stockyard licenses so that work is not hindered,” Shashi Ranjan, the director of state mines and geology department, told TOI.
