AP govt's move to promote robo sand hailed

Ongole: The State government's move to encourage the use of robo sand is expected to help promote new stone crushing units and generate employment.

The Cabinet took the decision in this regard recently. It will also help get rid of mountains of granite scrap alongside the granite quarries and factories in Prakasam, Anantapur, Srikakulam, Chittoor and Kurnool districts. These heaps of granite scrap are described as manmade mountains.

The robo sand or manufactured sand is made out of quarry stones which will be cut into 500mm or lesser size using a stone crusher.

These small stones are sent into a jaw crusher to grind them into less than 0 to 5mm sand particles. The manufactured sand is proved to be as good as natural or river sand for use as construction material.

The other by-product, stone powder of 2mm in particle size is useful in cement brick manufacturing and plastering. Robo sand is in use in India for long and several companies are working in Andhra Pradesh for long.

The final product, manufactured sand, is available to the consumer at around Rs 600 to 800 per metric ton in the State, whereas the government has fixed Rs 375 per ton for the supply of natural sand as per the new policy.

According to an estimation, the Andhra Pradesh State useson an average of 2 crore metric tons of sand as construction material every year.

For the last few weeks, the government has tough time in supplying the sand to cater to the needs of the people and is being criticised by various sections of the society for its failure ensure adequate quantities of sand.

At the Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, the government has decided to promote robo sand units in the State to ensure that the sand is supplied as per the demand.

The government announced to offer loans up to Rs 50 lakhs to Rs 1.5 crore at Rs 0.25 interest to new entrepreneurs and existing stone crushing units for upgrading the technology to manufacture robo sand.

To help the survival of sand manufacturing units, the government has also taken a favourable decision to use robo sand up to 20 per cent in the development activities within radius of 50 km of the crushing unit.

The Cabinet has also allotted Rs 37.3 crore per annum, a total of Rs 186.5 crores for the sanction of loans to stone crushing units. MA Azeem, the Chirmakurthy Galaxy Granite Owners Association, said the granite quarries in the State produce thousands of tons of waste every year.

He agreed that many quarries are dumping the waste at the vacant place of the quarries for several years and the dumps are like manmade mountains, and it can be utilised as the raw material for the sand manufacturing units for years.

With the decision of the government to encourage sand manufacturing units, he felt that the local stone crushing units can be upgraded, and hundreds of new jobs will be created in the area.

He said that as the setting up of sand manufacturing units cost around Rs 2 crore and the government is offering loansat Rs 0.25 interest, many new small and big entrepreneurs will enter the field soon.

E Narasimha Reddy, Deputy Director of Mines and Geology in Prakasam district, said there is already one industry manufacturing sand in the district.

He said guidelines are yet to be issued by the government. He felt that sand manufacturing unit will flourish if the government can provide continuously orders for robo sand for use in local development activities.