Fresh e-auction notice issued for 196 sand, gravel quarries

Chandigarh

There could finally be some relief for those constructing houses/buildings in Punjab. With the state government ready to auction seven blocks (as 196 sand and gravel quarries) within a month, the prices of sand and gravel are expected to come down.

The process to auction the sand and gravel quarries was initiated today. Once the quarries are auctioned on July 1, rampant illegal mining operations across the state are expected to come down drastically. Over the past few months, only a handful of legally auctioned quarries have been operational. But the mining contractors and even traders of minor minerals have been extracting sand and gravel from wherever possible, while the administration has turned a blind eye towards it.

Information gathered by The Tribune from across the state showed that the retail price of sand is ranging between Rs 1,800 and Rs 2,000 per 100 cubic feet, while that of gravel is between Rs 2,000 and Rs 2,200 per 100 cubic feet. Sources in the trade have told The Tribune that it was because there was no check on extracting the sand and gravel in the past few months that the prices had not zoomed, in spite of the stay on auction of 200 mines from October onwards. The stay was lifted last month.

The government had not been able to auction the mines/quarries after its new mining policy, announced last year, had been stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court last year. The state government had come up with its new mining policy in October 2018 and had wanted to auction the quarries in December last year. As part of the new policy, rather than auction quarries, the government had proposed to auction large contiguous stretches of land/rivers, wherever the minor minerals were available. The policy also mentioned that if minerals available were not sufficient in a particular area, it was to be clubbed with the adjoining district to form a workable block. This policy had been stayed on the ground of not identifying area to be mined as per revenue records.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court vacated the stay in April, but asked the state government to auction the sites after identifying the area to be allowed for mining. With this, the state government today issued a fresh e-auction notice, by including the points referred to in the judgement. As per this notice, the area of each quarry has been identified, as per the revenue records and prospective bidders have been asked to visit the quarries and assess if the amount of minerals to be extracted are available at the quarries. The bidders have also been informed that an Online Punjab Sand Portal will be set up and sale to all consumers can be on online and offline mode. The concessionaire of each block will have to notify the rate of sand on this portal and all vehicles to be used for transportation of sand will be registered on the portal.

How state will control the price

Both sand and gravel will not be sold by the bidder at the mining site at more than Rs 9 per cubic feet.
Maximum rates for transportation of these minerals, too, will be notified on the Punjab Sand Portal.
Maximum rate of sand and gravel to be charged from consumer cannot exceed the sum of above two.

7 blocks on sale