xWith no legal sand mining taking place in Goa, availability of sand in the State remains a grey area as residents complain of difficulty in getting sand at a reasonable price even for regular masonry work for home repairs. It is learnt that a truck load (ten meter) sand costs a whopping Rs 35,000. As a result sand mafias are illegally extracting the resource from riverbeds and open pits, causing major environmental challenges.
It may be recalled that in 2019 the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court has ordered the State government to crack down on people involved in illegal sand mining. Sand shortage has also hit construction activity. Given the scarcity of sand, it is probably time to look to alternative material to carry out construction activities.
Manufactured sand (M-Sand) is artificial sand produced from crushing hard stones into small sand sized angular shaped particles which can be used as construction aggregate. The government needs to encourage use of alternatives to river sand.
