TN government to auction river sand imported from Malaysia on Sept 30

The first consignment of 56,750 tonnes of natural river sand imported from Malaysia will be auctioned by the Tamil Nadu government on September 30 to address the acute shortage of sand required for the construction industry, said sources. The cargo arrived by the vessel Aurelia and has been fully unloaded in two days at the Kamarajar port in Ennore as against the original plan of three days, said P Raveendran, Chairman, Chennai Port Trust, holding additional charge as CMD of Kamarajar Port Ltd. The ship, which arrived from Pekan port, was berthed at Chettinad International Bulk Terminal. The sand was imported by IRVS Resources Pvt Ltd for the Public Works Department. Raveendran said the KPL allotted an open land about 1.5 acres to South India Corporation Pvt Ltd for the storage of river sand. The unloading operation was carried out with the two harbour mobile cranes of Chettinad International Bulk Terminal. The cargo operation was completed in 48 hours with a productivity of 1,184 tonnes per hour, he said. In March, the Public Works Department had floated tender seeking interest from private players to import nearly 5 lakh tonnes of imported sand at a cost of nearly ?550 crore to tide over the shortage of sand to help the construction industry.