Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP) 

Udupi, Oct 9: The sand crisis the district was facing till recently is almost a thing of the past as over 10,000 tonnes of sand was extracted in the district so far. The work of issuing licences for sand extraction is in progress, and 158 among 170 applicants have been found to be eligible for sand licences and 120 have already been issued with permits. 

It is learnt that licence issuance got stuck because of festival holidays and the entire process would be completed by the end of this week. The work of fixing GPS for sand trucks has been completed and a vigil to ensure that sand does not get transported out of the district has been maintained. 

The licences come with penal causes for violation of conditions. The district sand committee has decided not to issue sand licences in excess of 170. It is learnt that 12 persons who were engaged in traditional methods of clearing sand blocks before 2001 are facing criminal cases. 

So far, the order received pertains to extraction of 7.96 lac tonnes of sand. The extraction will go on till the end of this year, after which the people can obtain sand through sand app. People can open the app, learn about the rate of sand that day, and remit the amount so that the sand would be delivered at their doorsteps. There is no need to play vehicle hire charges separately. From the point of booking of sand till its delivery, people will get information in the app about the current state of their order. 

The trucks carrying sand have GPS while the sand docks have GPS along with geo fencing. The current rate of sand is Rs 5,500 per ten tonnes of sand, and for transportation of every tonne of sand, Rs 96 has to be paid by way of royalty. For delivering sand by small vehicles up to 20 km distance, Rs 1,500 has been fixed while for big vehicles for the same distance, Rs 2,500 has been fixed. For additional distance, Rs 50 per km will have to be paid. 

Senior geologist in the department of mines and geology here, Ranji Nayak, said that the work of identifying sand docks is in progress and that sand will be supplied as per demand once the work of issuing licences is completed. He revealed that there are plans to distribute sand by using sand bazaar app from next year onward.