Sand scarcity hits Vizag real estate hard

Visakhapatnam: The Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India (Credai) Visakhapatnam chapter has expressed its concern over severe shortage of sand and abnormal increase in prices of cement and steel.

"Covid-19 has adversely impacted all areas of life including apartment and real estate activities. The adverse impact on the apartment construction sector has a cascading effect on other businesses connected with the building industry. It has hit hard lakhs of daily labourers who depend on construction works," Credai Visakhapatnam chairman Peela Koteswara Rao, president B. Srinivasa Rao and honorary secretary V Dharmender told reporters here on Thursday.

They said that Inadequate supply of sand, an important construction material, had become a permanent problem for the builders, hampering the construction activity and making hundreds of workers, skilled and unskilled, jobless.

They said inadequacy of supply of sand, sometimes caused by the manipulations of greedy sand mafia, the construction activity had come to a snail's pace. The unexpected Covid-19 had further worsened the situation. The Credai office-bearers said there was no regular sand supply to the entire district, forcing the builders to depend on nearby districts and Odisha. Hence, builders in Visakhapatnam need special attention of the authorities concerned in dealing with the issue, they pointed out.

They hailed Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's new policy allowing online booking with the aim of eliminating sand mafia and other hurdles in supply of sand at Rs 375 per tonne at the reach level of the district and around Rs 800 at the site ensuring uninterrupted supply to builders and common public. Unfortunately, no builder could get proper supply of sand that meets the requirement of their projects, they said.

In order to maintain uninterrupted construction activities, the builders are buying sand at higher cost between Rs 1,700 and Rs 2,000 per tonne, they said and lamented that it was approximately three-fold increase compared to the cost fixed by the government. They hoped that the officials would take steps for proper implementation of the decision taken by the Chief Minister.