TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Goa construction industry can breathe a sigh of relief, as legal sand extraction is likely to start by the end of the monsoon after a prolonged drought of two years. The government has now decided to accept applications for issuing licenses for sand extraction ~the lifeblood of the construction industry~ immediately.
The entire Goa coastline comes within the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) and sand mining is banned in the state. No sand mining licences have been issued over the last two years. A committee has been constituted to regularise sand mining, given the importance of sand in the real estate industry.
The ban on new licenses had encouraged a parallel illegal sand extraction industry, with pecuniary benefits to enforcing agencies like police and harassment of middle tier entrepreneurs like truck owners while the actual perpetrators ~ many backed by powerful political forces ~ got away scot free.
The committee under the collector has finalized some 12 to 13 sites in north Goa for which applications can be processed, sources said, that could be used for
manual sand extraction.
In mid March the committee had first identified 39 potential sites along north Goa’s rivers for sand mining at a meeting presided over by the officiating Collector North, Sanjiv Gadkar. The sites were marked on the basis of the six meters depth of sand, from the river bed.
The committee, that included officials from the Department of Mines, Captain of Ports, Goa State Water Resources Department, Goa State Pollution Control Board, deputy collectors of Bardez, Pernem and Tiswadi and other committee members including local representatives have decided to appoint an agency to conduct a study on how much sand is available and whether the identified site is in an ecosensitive zone, a fish breeding area or CRZ.
