Special camps to verify the documents of sand lorries registered for loading sand from quarries under the online system introduced by the State government began at the district headquarters on Monday.
Special teams of officials from Regional Transport Offices were deputed for scrutiny and approval of the documents of registered sand lorries. Officials said the move was intended to prevent malpractices in sand loading, especially the use of bogus registration numbers and registration numbers of other vehicles. The verification process would ensure that only approved sand lorries were allowed to load sand from the quarries run across the State.
The State government had launched the online booking system on July 1 through the portal www.tnsand.in and the mobile App, TNsand, after taking over the operations of the sand quarries. The move was intended to check malpractices and avoid long queues of lorries at the quarries. Under the system, members of the public and lorry operators can book sand loads by providing the vehicle registration numbers.
Starting Monday, special camps will be held for five days to verify the documents of the sand lorries registered through the portal. Under the exercise, lorry owners have to register their vehicles and produce the print out of the forms along with original registration and fitness certificates, permits and insurance of the registered vehicles.
In Tiruchi, Collector K.Rajamani inaugurated the special camp that was held at the campus of the office of the Chief Engineer, Public Works Department, Water Resource Organisation. Similar camps were held at the district headquarters across the region.
In a brief interaction with reporters, Mr. Rajamani said only registered sand lorries would be allowed to load sand from the quarries and the exercise was an attempt to streamline the process. At present, 12 quarries were functioning in the district and steps were being taken to ensure that no artificial scarcity was created.
Arun Thamburaj, Project Director, Sand Quarrying Operations, said the move was part of the measures to streamline the online system of sand sale. It would help plug leakages and only lorries with stipulated capacity and road worthiness would be approved.
“The verification process was the first step towards creating a data base of sand lorries based on which appropriate systemic changes can be brought in to streamline the process further. The output is now 11,000 lorry loads a day,” Mr. Thamburaj told The Hindu.