Placing online order: State to introduce system of e-procurement of sand

Kolkata: The state government is all set to introduce e-procurement of sand facilitating a new system of placing online order to buy the building material.

This comes after introduction of the new Sand Mining Policy giving the authority to the Mineral Development and Trading Corporation to control the entire process of sand mining. It is the corporation that now undertakes and carries out the process of auctions of sand mines and e-auction.

The application for procurement of sand can be done through a dedicated portal and it would be send to the address provided by the applicant.

The trucks would be fitted with GPS system enabling its tracking and there would be a centralised round-the-clock control room to monitor the movement of the sand-laden trucks. It would enable tracking of the trucks starting from excavation point to the stock yard. A tender would also be floated soon to manage the entire system.

Already, the state government has taken necessary moves to upload details of all existing and potential sand mines in the central portal. It needs mention that the state government had introduced a sand mining policy in 2016. Assessing that there was lack of uniformity and it was leading to environment hazards, the state government has introduced the new sand mining policy that would check the financial loss as well.

Similarly, the state government has also decided to bring the black stone mining under the Mineral Development and Trading Corporation. E-auction and e-challan would also be introduced. The decision to introduce the black stone mining under the Mineral Development and Trading Corporation was taken after it was found that it is done at present in an unscientific manner leading to both economic and environment hazards.