Fourth Malaysian vessel with river sand to reach this week

So far, the PWD (Mines) has imported three vessels of river sand in the last four months. The third Malaysian vessel, Acirabee Naree, reached the Ennore port last month. Currently, the online sale of the sand unloaded from the third vessel is being done.

However, the continuous import of river sand has not improved the supply of sand in the State.

The Tamil Nadu Sand Lorry Owners’ Association president S Yuvaraj said, “We have been waiting for more than six months to receive sand from the State. 

We had made a payment of Rs 20,000 crore in advance when the government announced its decision to import at the beginning of the year.” The association had staged various demonstrations demanding to streamline the sand supply. 

“More than 1.5 lakh tonnes of river sand has been imported in the past few months. Although it is not enough to satisfy our burgeoning demands, we are importing it to curb the illegal sand mining in the State. 

The protesters know that the government will soon find an alternative to mitigate the solution.  We have not found any long-lasting solution to augment the supply of sand yet,” an official said.

The PWD maintains that one unit of sand is sold at Rs 2,300, which was fixed a couple of months ago.