Kakinada: East Godavari district collector P. Prashanthi instructed officials to initiate the excavation of 4,000 metric tonnes of sand per day. This plan includes 1,000 metric tonnes from small sand reaches and 3,000 metric tonnes from larger reaches, coordinated through Boat Men Societies. The de-siltation points for sand extraction have already been allocated to these societies and an additional 74 sand points have been approved for excavation from the Godavari River.
During a teleconference with officials on Thursday, Prashanthi noted that 44 sand points were allotted to the Boat Men Societies in the first phase, with the recent approval of 74 new points. She emphasised the need for officials to allocate these points to the societies and encourage their efforts to meet consumer demand.
The collector mentioned that excavation has not yet commenced at 17 sand points due to flooding from the Godavari River. If these points become accessible, an estimated 1.188 million metric tonnes of sand could be available. Consumers can obtain sand offline from nine designated reaches, including Vadapalli, Aurangabad, Aurangabad-2, Erinamma, Kovvuru, Dondagunta Revu, two points in Dowleswaram, and one point at Kotilingala Revu in Rajamahendravaram.
She also instructed revenue divisional officers (RDOs) to focus on creating essential infrastructure, such as power, drinking water, roads and drainage systems in housing colonies, to ensure sand availability for government projects. Additionally, she stated that rice millers must provide a bank guarantee for custom milling of the Kharif crop; otherwise, the mills will be blacklisted.
Joint collector S. Chinna Ramudu, DRO G. Narasimhulu, RDOs R. Krishna Naick and Rani Sushmitha, mines assistant director D. Phani Bhushan Reddy and superintendent engineer in the irrigation department G. Srinivasa Rao were present.
