Lack of sand: Unfinished flat work face setback

Team Udayavani, Feb 27, 2019, 3:29 AM IST

Customer’s planning to buy | District’s economy affected

Udupi: Though the GST on the purchase of houses in the construction phase has come down, the lack of sand has considerably slowed down the pace of construction and thus inadvertently pushed away prospective customers. Since the last one year, the serious problem of lack f sand has brought the building construction arena to the ground.

40-60% stopped

Due to the lack of sand, construction activities in rural and urban areas have come to a stop by 60% and 40% respectively. A few are continuing the work which had been stopped in the middle. Basava and Ambedkar housing scheme is facing a setback.

CFT rises from 30 to 65

The sand which cost Rs 30-35 per CFT has now risen to Rs 60-65. A few builders are spending Rs 16,000 to Rs 18,000 for a load of 3 unit. The sand available in the black market consists of 255 of waste. This only leads to more loss complain the builders.

7 days to test M sand

Good quality sand is also as expensive as the sand in the black market. It casts Rs 65 per CFT and a load of 3 unit sand costs anywhere between Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000. If the M sand has dust mixed in it, then it will be dangerous. This needs to be tested in the labs and is tested at Manipal MIT. The process takes a time period of a week. It is impossible to test every load, complain the helpless contractors.

Impossible to plaster

M sand may be used for slab and concreting but it is not suited for plastering. Plastering takes more than 2 hrs if M sand is used.

Rs 1.5 lakh burden for 1,000 sq ft

Earlier 1 unit of sand cost Rs 2,500, now it has become Rs 5,000. 75 unit sand is required for the construction of 1,000 sq ft building which put an additional cost of Rs 1.5 lakh on the builder.

30 applications for M sand

30 crushers in the district have sent applications to the Mines and Geology department for M sand.

7 member committee meeting remains

8 sand blocks with a total of 7 lakh ton sand has been identified in the district including 4 at Papanashini, 3 at Savarna and I at Sita River and only extraction process remains. The 7 member committee meeting has not yet been conducted.

Expense increased by 12%

“Earlier, it was decided that the sand expense for the construction of the building would be around 5-6%. But now it has increased to 10-12%. Due to the lack of sand and the rise in the prices, the construction industry has almost come to a standstill. Financial transactions have stopped,” said Gopal Bhat, president of Udupi district engineers association

Article by Santosh Bollettu translated into English by Aaron Dmello