Sinking? Medigadda sand to fetch govt 500 crore

Hyderabad: Medigadda barrage, which is embroiled in controversy after some of its piers sank leading to leakages and causing financial loss to the govt, is set to redeem itself by contributing Rs 500 crore to the state treasury in the form of sand auction.
As per the irrigation and mines departments estimations, Medigadda has a huge quantity of sand — 92 lakh metric tonnes — piled up at the barrage site over the years."We are expecting about Rs 500 crore to Rs 600 crore revenue through the bids. Since it's an open bid competition, we are expecting a jump in the revenue. Also, there is huge demand for the Godavari river sand which is of fine quality," a senior official involved in the tendering process told STOI.The Telangana Mineral Development Corporation has recently floated tenders for sand mining for 14 blocks around the barrage. The response from the bidders has been overwhelming with as many as 383 contractors participating in the bids and showing keen interest to extract sand. While the technical bids were opened on Friday, financial bids will be opened this Monday.Experts said since the water was stored in huge quantity at Medigadda barrage since 2019, sand got accumulated in large quantities at the barrage. "Had there been water flow in the Godavari continuously, the sand would have been washed off to the downstream of the barrage which, however, did not happen," an expert said.

While successful bidders extract the sand for a two-year term, a majority of them start immediately after getting permission letters before monsoon. "The mineral development corporation approximately gets Rs 400 per tonne, while the bidders sell the sand at Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200 per tonne," a source in the govt said.
As huge quantities of sand piled up at Medigadda, the irrigation and the mineral development corporation also conducted a survey at Annaram and Sundilla barrages. Since there was water flow at the barrages, sand accumulation was not much at the two places.