Mangaluru: With the aim of bringing state out of the sand scarcity problems, State Minister for Mines and Geology Vinay Kulkarni has said that all the 549 sand blocks in the state would be auctioned soon.

Addressing a press meet at the Circuit House on Sunday, Kulkarni said that 549 sand blocks have been identified in the state, out of which 200 have already been auctioned. The remaining blocks will be auctioned soon to put an end to the problem.

He further said that the state has been contemplating to give nod to sand mining in Coastal Regulation Zone as well and a proposal for the same had been sent to Union Ministry of Environment. A decision in this regard will be out in next 20 days.

“If this is done then licenses can be issued to traditional miners in CRZ,” he said adding that there was a need to focus on manufactured sand, which meets sand requirement of about 10,000 lac metric tonnes out of the total 28,000 metric tonne consumption in state per annum.

Calling upon the people to set up more such manufacturing units, he said that despite the fact that about Rs 5 cr is required to set up one sand manufacturing unit, the government is committed to support such undertakings by providing subsidy, land etc.

Health minister U T Khader, MLC Ivan D’Souza, and MLAs J R Lobo and Mohiuddin Bava were present.