1,60,000 buildings remain unfinished

Chennai: The construction industry in the capital city has almost come to a standstill due to acute shortage of sand. According to sources, in public sector alone, nearly 1,60,000 buildings are left unfinished in and around Chennai.

Also, the order by Madras High Court imposing a blanket ban on mining of river sand within six months and asking the industry players to opt for Manufactured-Sand (M-Sand) has affected thousands of lives.

Currently, there are 1,07,000 sand lorries in the state of which 66,000 registered players are operating and the others are awaiting approval.

“At present, around 7,000 units of sand are supplied to Chennai daily as against the actual requirement of 14,000 units. To complete all the unfinished buildings, the city would require 50,000 units of sand per day. However, at maximum with the current expertise, only 10,000 units of M-sand can be supplied throughout the state,” said R. Panneerselvam, president, Tamil Nadu Sand Lorry owners Co-ordinate Welfare Federation.

Citing other drawbacks of M-Sand, he further added, “The strength of the sand is comparatively weaker as it requires to be washed with water before using and the current water shortage does not support the move. Moreover, this might also lead to ecological imbalance.”

Concurring with his views, S. Yuvaraj, president of Tamil Nadu Sand lorry Owner’s Federation said he had lodged a complaint against the quality of M-sand and urged the government to provide necessary infrastructure and subsidies to bring down the price of m-sand.

Currently, two units of M-sand cost Rs 10,800 and river sand stands at Rs 1,080 for two units. Officials from the building associations have said that they were facing issues while sticking tiles to the concrete made with M-sand as they would pop out due to poor quality, Though M-sand is available, most of them have halted the projects due to concerns of adulteration.

According to officials of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (Credai), already, 1 lakh jobs have been lost in Tamil Nadu alone and 1 crore square feet of construction work is delayed. About '10,000 crore worth of investments are affected which have resulted in serious losses for developers and customers.