NANDKUMAR’s Rs 1000 CRORE SANDY MISTAKE On 12 Jun 2010 Dr.Nandkumar Kamat wrote on Goanet: With low capital base, cheaply exploited unorganised labour living in poor conditions, zero concern for ecology and environment, intensive sand mining is nothing but the mass rape of rivers of Goa. Exploitation has crossed millions of cubic metres per month. The business has crossed Rs. 1000 crores per year (check rising bank deposits in Colvale, Dhargal, Pirna alone) and is still growing thanks to explosion of constructions, megaprojects. We don't need another Saleli in our islands. Response: Business of Rs 1000 crore per year in sand mining is absurd and certainly not a studied and cross-checked statement. The total sand requirement of Goa is around Rs 100 core or 16 lakh cubic metres (CM) of which sands of Goan origin account Rs 80 crore. This is substanciated hereunder: 1) Economic survey 2009-10 by Goa government says that total construction activity in Goa was valued at Rs 1650 crore in FY 2009. Civil Engineer’s Value based Thumb-rule says that the sand accounts 3-5% cost of construction. Therefore demand for construction sands in Goa can be Rs 50 to 80 crore. Since Goa does not export sand, it can not be Rs 1000 crore as Nandkumar projects! 2) Sand worth Rs 1000 cr means 170 lakh CM (@Rs 600/CM). This means annually 30 lakh truck/pick-up (at 6.5 CM per truck and 4.5 CM per pick-up) trips loaded plus 30 lakh empty trips. Considering 300 working days, this means 10,000 trips a day loaded and 10,000 trips empty a day on West Goan roads! At this level, the nuisance, hazards, traffic jams and deaths on Western Goa roads would have been more than those on iron ore mining roads in Eastern Goa! 3) Total demand of sand for whole of Mumbai (population over a crore) is 600-1000 loaded trips a day as reported by Builders’ Assocition in Feb 2010. How can Goa (population 16 lakhs) require 10,000 trips a day? 4) Civil Engineer’s Volume bases thumb rule says 100 sq met construction requires 25 truck loads of sand. Nandkumar’s projected sand output will build 1 lakh houses of average 100 square metre each year! And this for 2 lakh households in Goa! All that I have said looks like taking opportunity to show Nandkumar, an academician and scientist, in poor light. But it is not so. I need to help him as a fellow Goan who is responsible and has demonstrated in the past that he loves Goa. The constructive part starts now, so that he gets useful info and perspective in his endeavour of Good of Goa. What I am trying to point out is: Sand mining is a problem and needs to be attacked. But sand mining is a much smaller problem (Revenue: Rs 80 core; Profits: Rs 30 crore; nuisance in river) compared to iron ore mining (Revenue: Rs 15,000 core; Profits: Rs 12,000 crore; nuisance everywhere) and Nandkumar being a Cabinet rank activist must agitate larger problem and only if he finds time after ironing out iron ore may detour to smaller problems or be a guide to panch level activist to take up sand issue. I did a simple check in 10 minutes by phoning my cousin Mayur Keni who recently built a house next to Vidyadhiraj Mutt in Margao. He in turn contacted his Sand supplier, who informed that Goa’s sand supply comes from Colval, Amona, Kiranpani, Deusa, Revaldi, Jua any many places (aggregate around 1000 trips a day) and Londha (around 200 trips a day). 60% haulage is by pick-ups and 40% by trucks. In a year about 3 lakh trips supply 16 lakh CM., valued at Rs 100 crore. Excluding Londha, Goa sand miners’ revenue comes to Rs 80 crore. More refined version can be found out with some more efforts. Now let us come to sand mining profits. Price per trip is Rs 3600. Transport, loading and un-loading may cost Rs 1600 to 1800 per trip, for 25 km average haulage. I do not know what is mining cost and royalty, but can be easily found out. Assuming mining cost to be Rs 600 to 1000 per trip, the profit margins could be 30 to 40%. So, the sand miners all over Goa collectively make profits of around Rs 24 to 32 crore a year. Error of assumption if any may push it up to Rs 40 crore; nothing beyond. If anybody has deeper insights please enlighten us. Secondly, sand mining is a primary economic activity which piggy-backs the secondary economic activity of construction. The demand for sand is generated entirely locally and not from exports. Any efforts on part of Government to control such primary activity and supply thereof without commensurately controlling secondary activity will lead to price bubble due to supply constraints. Economists would high-light the diseases and side-effects such a policy imblance causes in a market driven economy. If sand price surges to Rs 2000 per CM , will government control sand prices? With such huge profits will not illegalities surge in Sand as has happened in case of iron ore when FOB prices shot up 8 fold from $15/ton in 2002 to $120/ton now? Policy makers in the Planning Commission would prescribe that, a better thing to do is to control the secondary activity (construction) itself. Control need not be stopping construction but reducing per unit consumption of sand, using substitute materials like glass, steel framework etc. It will automatically reduce demand for sand and reduce sand mining. Our TCP minister, Digamber is not showing any inclination to control construction activity. On the contrary he has far surpassed Babush in illegalities. Babush, during his treacherous regime never made bones of his covert agenda. Digamber on the other hand has been very deceptive. He has not only taken gullible Goans for a ride but also foxed resourceful wisemen in the GBA. His success in doing so can partly be attributed to his ability to purchase/neutralize/influence the media, editors and activists (as Nandkumar himself has pointed out) through various arms of miners, on whom he has considerable hold and vice versa. Finally, what I want to appeal to Nandkumar is that he may take up the issue of sand mining (Revenue: Rs 80 core; Profits: Rs 30 crore; nuisance in river) if it is so much close to his heart but simultaneously also agitate the issue of iron ore mining (Revenue: Rs 15,000 core; Profits: Rs 12,000 crore; nuisance everywhere) for the Good of Goa, because his activist stature is amongst the TOP TEN in Goa. Rajendra Kakodkar
