Vijayapura: After National Green Tribunal lifts ban imposed on extracting sand from Bhima River belt, the decision is expected to help availability of adequate quantity of sand along with facilitating bringing down the prices of sand for construction.
In a recently issued order, the Tribunal has permitted the Mines and Geology Department to undertake sand extraction in the Bhima River belt. However the direction has come with certain restrictions including the adherence to Sustainable Sand Mining and Management Guidelines 2016 and Enforcement & Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining 2020.
As per the guidelines of NGT and New Sand Policy – 2020 of the government that was cleared in November, 2021, the District Administration has identified five blocks, in Bhima River basin of Indi, Chadachan and Almel Taluk limits, for sand mining.
Meanwhile, the Taluk Sand Stewardship Committee had proposed to grant the contract to Hatti Gold Mines Limited (HGML) to the District Sand Stewardship Committee. After that, the District Administration which held a meeting that was chaired by Deputy Commissioner P. Sunil Kumar has decided unanimously to give the contract to HGML.
According to the officials of the Department of Mines and Geology, “The five identified blocks are Umrani of Chadachan, which is spread in over 140 acres, Gubbewada and Shirgur and Padanur and Baragudi of Indi, where the area is 149 acres and 160 acres, respectively and Devanagaon and Bagalur of Almel, where the area is 270 acres and 78 acres, respectively. A total of 797 acres has been identified for sand mining in Bheema River. The expected sand availability is around 27.39 lakh MT.”
DC P. Sunil Kumar said that, “Since 216-17 NGT had restricted sand mining in Bhima River. After pursuing this case, NGT lifted the ban and permitted sand mining with orders to follow the guidelines of SSMG-2016 and EMGSM-2020. Following the guidelines, the five blocks have been identified in the Bhima River and a contract has been accorded to HGML for the next five years. The price will be decided by the government.”
“Allowing for sand mining in Bheema River will also address the sand crisis in the district. It will also be supplied at an affordable cost. Meanwhile, the identification process for sand mining in the Gram Panchayat levels is underway. We are yet to find the quality sand in the rivulets,” said DC Sunil Kumar.
This will come as a big relief to the people of the district as currently per load of sand costs anywhere above Rs. 30,000. The new sand policy is expected to reduce the price by at least 50 per cent. There is no permit for sand mining in Krishna and Doni Rivers, which are the other two rivers flowing in the District.
