Mafia mixes riverbed sand with beach sand

In the recent past, there has been shortage of sand in the city and builders were expressing concern over the difficulty since it affects the livelihood of thousands of workers who rely on the sector. The district administration has not conducted auctions for sand mining and hence a majority of people in the construction activity have stopped work due to dearth of sand.

The cost of sand has augmented to Rs 55,000 for a load of truck (8 units) which was previously around Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000. Interestingly, this has been not clear riverbed sand but was being mixed up with beach sand. Experts in structural engineering warn that people have to be careful with the mixed sand to construct buildings since it is potentially acidic and has negative long-term effect on durability of the structure.

Sand brokers are simply mixing 70 per cent of riverbed sand with 30 per cent of beach sand thereby making huge profits, according to sources.

“Normally, salty nature in sand is a problem for constructions which may affect the concrete composition in due course. If the proportion is less, there will be no problem,” said Dr V.S.N. Murthy, chief scientist of NIO, Visakhapatnam regional office. There are many places in the surrounding mandals where sand brokers follow the technique to make money.

In fact, transporting beach sand also attracts CRZ guidelines but many were violating it. Credai honorary secretary P. Koteswara Rao said the process is dangerous for constructions and appealed to the government to take necessary steps to allot sand blocks for the sector that would help reducing cost.