At a construction site in Mohali. (Express Archive)
Outside an under-construction 200-square yard house in Eco City project near Mullanpur lie four small mounds of sand, each a different shade of brown. “This one was from Anandpur Sahib, that one I got from Haryana. This one was probably dug illegally from around here as it was supplied by someone on a tractor trolley. The blackish toned one is the latest, it is from Baddi,” property owner Kuldeep Singh Saini explains, pointing to the four mounds.
With sand prices double of what they used to be months ago, Saini is among those who, instead of postponing their building plans until sand prices fall, has decided to take the next available option: order in the sand and gravel from Himachal Pradesh and Haryana to complete construction of their houses.
New high in price and limited availability of sand from Punjab have upset the whole apple cart of construction activity, with costs escalating and in certain cases constructions getting delayed with end users keep their fingers crossed waiting for a turnaround in the prices and availability of sand from Punjab.
But with scores of projects in areas like New Chandigarh, Mullanpur, Kharar, Kurali and Zirakpur also rushing to be completed, the crushers located in Baddi and in Haryana make a fortune by supplying sand and gravel for housing projects in Punjab, mainly in border districts along the two states.
The steady movement of tipper trucks carrying sand and gravel from crushers on Baddi-Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh and from crushers in Haryana is a common sight these days at Siswan T point, just outside Chandigarh. Drivers of such tipper trucks revealed that they were making as many as five rounds with sand and gravel from the two States in a day. In the last six months, they said, there was continuous supply of sand and gravel to areas in Punjab from the adjoining states.
Such is the hurry to deliver consignment that many drivers do not wait to complete the paperwork, called the X-form, at the crusher sites, and end up paying huge penalties, sometimes more than the consignment cost in Himachal Pradesh. The form is issued by the crusher owners.
“It was an urgent delivery of gravel to Mullanpur. As soon as I drove my truck out of the crusher site, a flying squad team of mining and taxation officials swooped down and asked for X-form. I had to pay Rs 15,000 on the spot. The value of consignment was less than that,” said the tipper truck driver.
At Siswan T-Point, the Punjab government has set up a joint check post of officials of mining, traffic police and taxation department to keep record to such tipper trucks entering Punjab. According to a mining official in Mohali district, Ugar Singh, the check post was set up in February this year only to check the documents relating to sand and gravel being supplied.
The end-users in Mohali districts are getting sand priced between Rs 30 to Rs 32 per cubic feet from Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. The sand suppliers said nearly a year back, when local sand was available, the price was between Rs 10 to Rs 12 per cubic feet.
A supervisor at a crusher on Baddi-Nalagarh road told The Indian Express that the crusher sold sand at Rs 20 per cubic feet and after the addition of transportation costs and margins by the suppliers, the users in Punjab were ending up paying nearly Rs 30 for per cubic of sand.
Shammi Walia, a building material supplier in Eco City, said since mines were not functioning in Mohali district, Baddi and nearby areas in Haryana were the nearest places to get sand and gravel from. “If we bring sand and gravel from district like Nawanshahr, the transportation charges increase the cost as per cubic feet of sand will cost more than Rs 35.” Walia said initially crushers in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana charged even less than what they are charging now, but after witnessing a steady demand, they also increased the rates.
“Still, sand is cheaper from the nearby crushers in adjoining States due to short distance and consequently lesser trasnportation charges as compared to getting it from other places in Punjab,” Walia added. That is also the reason that many like Saini who have plots in residential projects like Eco City look towards Himachal Pradesh and Haryana crushers to complete the construction.
“The worst hit are owners of small plot sizes like 100 square yards. Majority of them have taken loans for the property,” says Shammi Walia. Owner of a 100 square yards plot in Eco City says he had to delay the construction for nearly one year due to sand crisis in Punjab. “The sand was not available and if it was available, the rate was very high. In bits and pieces, I am constructing the house. Construction had to be stopped for nearly one year as I waited for prices of sand to come down,” says the owner, not wishing to be named.
The builders too complain of being hit adversely by the sand crisis in Punjab. Owner of Venus Constructions, Mukesh Chaudhary, says the higher prices of basic construction material like sand and gravel meant losses for his construction company. “We have to honour the agreements done earlier. We had a profit margin of five per cent as per those agreements. But with increased prices of sand and gravel, we will end up incurring loss of five per cent,” says Mukesh.
He added that he also suffered losses in projects where he entered into contract with individuals for providing labour only on contract basis for construction of house. “People stopped works waiting for prices to come down. But I had to pay my labour. And there are other daily c.osts also, like arranging infrastructure on rent to do construction work,” says Mukesh.
The scenario is no different in other parts of the State. Sunil Kumar, a builder in Bathinda, says construction business has been adversely affected “due to rise in sand prices”.