Nagpur/Mumbai: Maharashtra Government on Wednesday has unveiled the much-awaited new sand mining policy, under which sand depots will be formed. On a pilot basis, citizens will be able to get sand at the rate of Rs 600 per brass for one year. The Government has also decided to offer a royalty waiver. The decision in this regard was taken in the State Cabinet meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Eknath Shinde, Chief Minister, chaired the meeting. Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Revenue Minister, had announced last month during the Budget Session of the State Legislature that the new sand mining policy would be unveiled soon. As per the new comprehensive sand mining policy, citizens will get sand at the rate of Rs 600 per brass (Rs 133/- per metric tonne). The royalty will be waived. But, there will be levy of District Mineral Development Fund and transport permit (TP) service charges etc.
Gold Rate
05 May 2025
A tender process will be conducted for excavation of sand from designated ghat, transport of extracted sand to the sand depots, creation and management of sand depots etc. The extracted sand will be first transported to the designated sand depots, from where it will be sold to citizens. A technical committee headed by Tehsildar will carry out inspection of sand ghat in the river-bed in the respective area.
For each tehsil, a tehsil-level sand monitoring committee will be constituted. It will be headed by a Sub-Divisional officer concerned. This committee will finalise the sand ghat for extracting sand, and then recommend the same to the district-level committee for conducting an online e-tendering process. The district-level committee will be headed by the District Collector concerned. It will also comprise senior officers including Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Parishad; Superintendent of Police or Commissioner of Police, Additional Collector, Superintending Engineer of Public Works Department, Superintending Engineer of Water Resources Department, Regional Transport Officer, officers of Department of Geology and Mining as well as Maharashtra Pollution Control Board.
This committee will finalise the sand ghats for extraction of sand, and also ensure that the directions of National Green Tribunal are followed. According to reports, Maharashtra State Mining Corporation (MSMC) will be the nodal agency for setting up sand depots on Government or private land. MSMC will call tenders for excavation to be done by development contractors and dump it at depots.
However, some other reports said that tractors will be used for transporting sand, due to which each of the development contractors engaged in extraction and transport of sand will have to employ at least five labourers per tractor. For this, the contractors will have to obtain a labour license.
