Housing developers in Tamil Nadu prefer local sand to imports from Malaysia

The State government may delay ordering the second consignment of sand imported from Malaysia after the first consignment of 56,750 tonnes of imported sand that arrived last month has failed to pick pace with only 418 trucks shipping out 4,413 tonnes of sand. The sales started on October 8 initially with 24 trucks loaded with 287 tonnes of sand. “On October 13, it rose to 135 trucks loading 1,350 tonnes of sand and we expected it to rise substantially. But it has yet to pick up,” said Kamarajar Port officials. Although the cost of sand is cheap and priced at Rs 10,350 per unit (of 4.5 tonnes) at Ennore Port, the real challenge is the price of transporting it. As a result, most of the developers are happily going for the local sand rather for the Malaysian sand.