KOZHIKODE: The ban on sand mining imposed in the district last month has forced many buyers and contractors to go for substitutes to carry out the construction works.
They have been making use of the Manufactured Sand (M-Sand) and filtered sand instead of sand to carry out the work.
The district administration imposed the ban on December 5, 2013 following a direction issued by the National Green Tribal to grant permission for mining only after conducting environment impact studies at the waterbeds.
The construction sector started opting for available substitutes after it started severely feeling the dearth of construction materials.
Sand and metal are not available in the market forcing the people to halt the on-going construction works of their houses and buildings midway.
T K Sathish Babu, member of the Construction Workers Supervisors Association said that the ban has affected the construction sector. "The chances of people getting cheated by purchasing duplicate M-Sand are high, which will result in collapse of the building after some time,'' he said. "We have already submitted a memorandum to the district collector to take steps to carry out mining works at the recognized quarries and river beds to avoid people getting cheated by buying duplicate M-sand,'' he said.
I K Nikil Kumar, district vice-president of Kerala Government Contractors Federation said that the scarcity of materials has been forcing the people to go for whatever available substitute in the market. "The customers who are buying construction materials for the first time may not able to differentiate between original and the duplicate M-Sand and many go for the duplicate M sand. Customers should not opt for duplicate M-sand which is cheaper than the original one,'' he said.
The Confederation of Construction Organization- a joint organization comprising associations of architects, builders, CREDAI, construction labourers unions, earth moving equipment owners and operators constituted recently submitted a memorandum to chief minister Oommen Chandy demanding him to take steps to lift the ban.
The district has a total of 90 river beds in the 31 panchayats to carry out sand mining.
K Salim, patron of the Confederation of Construction Organization said that the shortage of construction materials especially sand and metal will be more in the coming days with the ban being enforced strictly. "The government should intervene in the issue or else the coming days will witness complete standstill of construction activities,'' he said.
