Buy sand/gravel online @ Rs 9 CFT; mining department to launch web portal-Sarkaria
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
For better monitoring of mining activities, Punjab Mines and Geology Minister Sarkaria said, the department is developing a Web portal which will be launched shortly. The portal would enable the consumers to buy sand/gravel online from the mining sites of their choice at the notified rate of Rs. 9/CFT. Under ease of doing business initiative, the department has also made provisions for online issuance of various permissions like permits for soil excavation in general as well as for BKO’s, and registration of crushers etc.
The Minister said that Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh led state government has formulated Punjab Sand and Gravel Policy, 2018 to bring transparency in sand mining sector. Under the policy the state government grants contracts by auction of mining blocks in strategically established clusters through progressive bidding instead of the earlier process of auction by individual mines.
The department had conducted auction of mining blocks in the May-June 2019 and had allotted 196 mining sites having annual extractable quantity of 350 Lakh MT in seven Mining Blocks through E-Auction for 3 years, said he, while adding that annual contract value of these contracts is Rs. 306 crore and a revenue of Rs.110 crore and Rs.105 crore has been received during the year 2019-20 and 2020-21 (up to December 31, 2020) respectively. Rs.80 crore is likely to be generated from mining till March this year.
Punjab government has also decided for desilting of rivers is to be allotted to the existing contractors of respective mining blocks. The drainage wing of Water Resources Department had identified 78 desilting sites in 6 blocks having 274.22 Lakhs MT desilting mining/mineral, he added.
January 6,2021
