Bhubaneswar: The state government is going to auction 1,219 sand mines in a bid to enhance revenue collection which has dwindled due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The total number of sand sairat sources in the state has gone up to 1,859 with the addition of 450 new sources. Out of this, 640 sources have been auctioned for the current year.
Holding a high-level review meeting in this regard, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy Thursday directed the officials concern to expedite the process for auction of the remaining sources of sand. The Revenue department was asked to monitor auctioning of the sand sources regularly and keep up-grading the number of sources.
Tripathy directed the Revenue and Disaster Management department to make all sairat sources operational within a definite time frame for bridging the gap between ‘demand and supply’ of sand.
Tripathy also directed the officials to finalise development of i4-MS software for real-time monitoring of sand excavation and transportation, and, fix the timeline for its application.
Further, the Chief Secretary directed them to make district-wise assessment of shortage or surplus of sand keeping in view the requirements in government and private sectors.
It was decided to allow inter-state transportation of surplus sands through competitive bidding process.
Tripathy further directed the officials concerned to strengthen enforcement activities for checking illegal lifting and theft of sand.
Revenue & Disaster Management secretary Bishnupada Sethi said the annual availability of sand for mining in the state has increased to 1,12,35,392 cubic metre. Out of this, the sairats with annual yielding capacity of 65,70,509 cubic metre have been operationalised so far, he said.
Revenue earned from the source in 2019-20 financial year has increased by 124 per cent as compared to the previous fiscal. Director of minor minerals, Bibhuti Bhusan Das, said, “The total revenue earned from sand in the year 2019-20 has increased to Rs 680 crore against the total revenue of around Rs 303 crore in 2018-19 – a growth of 124 per cent.”
