Coastline scarred

Hyderabad: The North Andhra coast is being rapidly denuded of its heavy mineral sand (HMS) by politicians and companies working hand in glove.

Praveen Prakash, the then chairman of AP Mineral Development Corporation, had  written to the state government on February 23, 2011, to cancel the joint venture agreement with Bothli Trade AG citing violations of the agreement. But the state government took no action in this regard. Instead, Mr Prakash was transferred out of the APMDC.

Mr Prakash had pointed out that in some cases there are no competitive bids, and listed 13 specific agreements including with Jindal, Anrak, Trimex and Bothli Trade AG (now in question).He  highlighted how rules have been flouted and estimated that APMDC would earn an additional Rs 11,049 crore if the contracts are renegotiated.

Civic activist E.A.S. Sarma has also been raising objections for the past five years, but consecutive governments have stuck to the agreements and given approvals and licences, flouting the rules.  

Currently, the state has granted three mining leases for these heavy mineral deposits over 809 hectares, and two prospecting licences over 4,000 hectares to different companies.

APMDC has applied for mining leases covering 15,659 hectares and entered  into an MoU with Bothli Trade AG, Switzerland, to establish a heavy mineral separation plant as well as 2,50,000 MTs of value-added products with an investment of about Rs 4,600 crore.

APMDC also signed a joint venture agreement with VV Minerals, a Chennai-based company for Ilmenite minerals namely Synthetic Rutile and Titanium Slag, with  an estimated outlay of Rs 1,800 to Rs 2,000 crore. APMDC is awaiting approval from the Centre to grant the mining leases which in turn will be sub-leased to the above SPV.

APMDC vice-chairman and MD T.R.K. Rao said, “Bothli failed to get  approvals from India Bureau of Mines and Atomic mineral division. So  no activity has started. They haven’t mined the sand. They didn’t have  environmental clearance. There was a delay of at least six years due to the elaborate procedures. As this delay is a violation of the MoU, the  then chairman Mr Praveen Prakash had written to the government for  cancellation of the agreement. Bothli got only prior approval for  prospective licensing for half of the area with which they have got  agreement.”

At present, two companies established by Transworld  Garnets Pvt Ltd and Beach Minerals Company Andhra Pvt, separate  garnet from the beach sand. At the time the licence was granted, Iimenite was a restricted mineral and they were not permitted to extract Iimenite.  

Subsequently, the Government of India liberalised the policy of granting of leases for Iimenite and hence M/s Transworld Garnets Pvt Ltd and  M/s Beach Minerals Company Andhra Pvt Ltd were entitled to extract  Iimenite and requested that Iimenite be included as an additional  mineral, which is under consideration of the government.

Mr Sarma said, “The irregularity here is that there so many minerals  apart from limenite are being extracted. The companies that get licence for extracting one mineral exploit everything available.”

He warned that these sand mining projects will have “serious adverse implications for the coastal environment of the northern coastline of the state. Sand mining is a prohibited activity in  Coastal Regulation Zone.

The Andhra Pradesh State Government should have  studied the track record of sand mining in Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala  and Tamil Nadu before hastily signing MoUs with private companies, that too, through questionable procedures of selection.

“There has been an attempt on the part of some political leaders and  civil servants to hand over the coastline to a few favoured groups at  the cost of public welfare and national security. We believe that the  sand mining franchises are a part of this. An investigation into the circumstances under which these franchises have been granted will  reveal the facts.”

Forum for Better Vishaka has written letters in this regard to APMDC, the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister since 2006 on various occasions but has got no response.