3 dist quarries to go under hammer today

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 18

The Industries Department is all set to auction three quarries situated in Nakodar and Shahkot tomorrow.

The three quarries are situated in Danewal, Chak Budala and Vehra villages, respectively. While Danewal has an annual extractable capacity of 4.42 lakh metric tonnes, Chak Budala has an annual extractable capacity of 3.35 lakh metric tonnes. The largest quarry in the group is at Vehra village which has an annual capacity of 6.10 lakh metric tonnes.

With the auction, the government is expecting to earn revenue to the tune of Rs 12 crore. District Industries Officer Mahesh Khanna said though the state government had announced to separate the industries from the Mining Department and had asked officials to place the new system on the SOS basis, the present auction would be held by the Industries Department only.

Though the department auctioned a quarry at Silkiana village in Phillaur at Rs 4.52 crore in November last year, no takers were found for these three quarries situated in Danewal, Chak Wadala and Vehra villages.

Meanwhile sources said as the sand rates came down immensely in the past few months following an increase in the auction of sand mining sites and the monopoly of the sand mafia in the trade where illegal sand mining was allegedly going on in connivance with the industry and police officials across the state, the contractors were finding it difficult to make profit through the “legal way”.

However, the recent announcement of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on making mining an independent department, hope has been raised among genuine contractors to pursue their interest in the business.

According to the district survey report, Jalandhar has over 1,113 thousand sq m of area which has a potential of 36 lakh tonnes of sand.

However, the department has already auctioned over 1,587 sq m of area having potential of 42 lakh tonnes.

The district has reported a shortage of 4.44 lakh tonnes of sand mining through legally auctioned mines. This is excluding the illegal mining statistics reported in lakhs of tonnes in the 85-km stretch from Panj Dhera village in Phillaur to Mehatpur, Shahkot, Malsian, and to Gidderpindi village in Kapurthala. While the Punjab Mining Department has identified over 14 quarries spread in over 110-hectare area, only four could get the clearance certificate from the Environment Ministry so far.

Fact file

The three quarries are situated in Danewal, Chak Budala and Vehra villages, respectively. While Danewal has an annual extractable capacity of 4.42 lakh metric tonnes, Chak Budala has an annual extractable capacity of 3.35 lakh metric tonnes. The largest quarry in the group is at Vehra village which has an annual capacity of 6.10 lakh metric tonnes.