Sand prices double in Vizag
The price of sand, which is an important construction material is skyrocketing with an increase of 150% during the last four months. This alarming rise has been reported in the city of Visakhapatnam.
Soon after the Andhra Pradesh state government announced its sand policy, there witnessed a sudden hike in price of sand. This is a matter of concern for the real estate developers in the city and its neighbourhood, while those developers who have political interests started artificially jacking up prices and thereby misusing the new sand policy. This also made way for several women self-help associations to join hands for sand trading.
As revealed by K Subba Raju, the Chairman of CREDAI, Andhra Pradesh chapter, and CH Ramakotaiah, the President of Builders Association of India local chapter, the current sand prices in the city is around Rs 40,000 per lorry load in the city as compared to the price in Bengaluru, which is around Rs 35,000-36,000 per load. In the month of July this year, one load was sold at just Rs 16,000-18,000, which means a kg of sand is at Rs 6 per kg, of which the earlier price was Rs 2.30 a kg.
Developers mentioned the reason behind such a spur of prices is that the state government is charging a base price of Rs 22,000 for every load and the suppliers are incurring additional freight costs of Rs 16,000. This is besides unaccounted payments to various governmental departments.
Even in the scenario of the sand mining ban, the cost of the raw material was at Rs 23,000 in the black market.
The builders in their effort to minimize the impact have started using Robo sand. As per builders, Robo sand is more strong is also a better substitute for river sand.
Justifying the revised sand policy, Subba Raju explained that they were actually paying Rs. 22,000 in bank demand draft per load through the e-seva counters. Payment at check posts are besides this.
The increasing price of construction materials have been badly affecting the realty segment of India, will many consumers staying back and builders facing challenge to push sales
Source: Business Standard
