While builders and sand extractors of CRZ areas cry hoarse over non-availability of sand in Dakshina Kannada district, at least 240 loads of sand is lying idle in stockyards of the Public Works Department.
PWD is entrusted with sand extraction from riverbeds in non-CRZ areas of the district. It sells the extracted sand through stockyards at Rs. 646 per cubic metre, which roughly comes to about Rs. 3,700 per tipper-load.
While extraction is on in Mangaluru and Bantwal taluks, there was no bidder to extract sand in Puttur taluk. Thehe successful bidder for Sullia taluk is yet to commence extraction, a senior PWD official said. Though non-CRZ sand is superior in quality to CRZ sand, extractors and transporters prefer the latter. While PWD’s sand is accounted for, there is no accurate mechanism to quantify sand extracted from non-CRZ areas, the officer said.
