AP Happy With ‘Free Sand’ – YCP says 750 Crs Loss

Among many other factors, exorbitant sand prices also led to the downfall of YSR Congress party in the 2024 assembly elections of Andhra Pradesh. Immediately after coming to power in 2019, YS Jagan’s government alleged that TDP regime resorted to illegal sand mining and scrapped the then existing policy. But, it subsequently failed to come up with a proper mechanism to provide sand at an affordable price because the supply of sand was entrusted to private entities.

This reckless move pushed the construction activity across the state into utter chaos as unchecked sand prices kept on increasing beyond the reach of the common people. Daily labourers suffered due to lack of employment as construction works were stalled due to the mounting sand prices. Even political analysts termed it as one of the biggest blunders committed by Jagan.

Now, the new government under Chandra Babu Naidu realised the importance of this burning issue and quickly took steps to address the problem. A new policy was formulated and brought into force w.e.f July 8th and sand is now made available at free cost with only transportation and seigniorage charges to be borne by the buyer.

The new policy came as a shot in the arm for the construction sector in Andhra Pradesh. With the re-launch of free sand policy, real estate will get a big boost as building activities will gain rapid pace in the next six months. Also, labourers will get daily work due to the uninterrupted supply of sand in all districts.

Though the YSRCP allege that the government will incur a yearly loss of 750 crores due to the new sand policy, the reduction in prices will give a big stimulus to real estate and thereby resulting in huge money flow.