Rajasthan sees spurt in demand for manufactured sand in past year

Production of manufactured sand rises ahead  of policy implementation at Rajasthan. The state has witnessed establishment of 20 such plants, all of these came into existence over the past couple of yeas following ban on mining of river sand. The trade though continues in lack of any guidelines from state government as policy regarding M-sand remains under consideration. “A committee constituted for preparing policy regarding use of mining waste and other material for production of M-sand has submitted its report in month of May this year. The draft policy is still under consideration at government level,” says an officer. The demand of manufactured sand has been on rise for constructional needs since river sand (bajri) become scarce and expensive. The state requires nearly 100 tonnes of construction sand each year, till recently all  of these used to arrive come from the river beds. However, the mining has been on hold in compliance of Supreme Court orders in a related case. “Initially, both the construction material suppliers and consumers were expecting the ban to be a temporary issue. The ban has though continued for over a year now and people are looking for alternatives,” says another officer. Rajasthan remains behind states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat in production of M-Sand. The industry gains pace in state on account of market need and shortage of availability. On the government side it has been the state pollution control board that has been spearheading state government’s effort in the direction, while mining and other departments have also been recently associated. The pollution control board even held a workshop to promote investment in production of M-sand and many of the government projects are using it as a construction mix.