Nelamangala/Hoskote: In an early morning raid, officials from the Bengaluru Rural division sprang into action on the city’s outskirts, and confiscated 200 sand trucks on Tuesday.
The simultaneous raids took place at Nelamangala, Hoskote, Devanahalli and Doddaballapur, starting at 3 am on Tuesday. The drivers were shocked at being stopped by the police team led by Rural DC V. Shankar.
Their permits were checked along with the quality of sand they were transporting and its place of origin. Most of the trucks did not have any kind of document and it was evident that the sand was mined illegally from lake beds.
Shankar said that there have been a number of complaints about the poor quality of sand available in Bengaluru. Lake beds and pond bottoms are dredged for mud which is later converted into filter sand by processing through hard running water. Bengaluru requires about 3,000 lorry loads of sand every day and many truck owners extract the mud from the lake beds to make filter sand.
“The central government has banned the use of filter sand which is picked up from lake beds in villages on the fringes of the city. The mud is mixed with pure sand or converted into filter sand. But this type of sand is not good for construction.
Its use has often led to the collapse of structures under construction in the past,” said Shankar. Officials from the Mines and Geology department were roped in to check the permits and quality of sand that was being transported, he added.
Many sand traffickers escaped the police net as drivers got to hear about it and used alternative roads to reach Bengaluru. Some of those caught, fled leaving their vehicles behind. Every night close to 1,500 sand lorries move on the Hosur Road alone, supplying sand to various parts of the city.
