Malappuram: Giving a fillip to the construction industry, the state’s first dredge sand refinery will start functioning on Sunday offering quality material at an affordable cost.
It will produce construction grade sand from the dredging waste from ports on an experimental basis. The processing unit was set up by the ports department with a private partner under the public-private-participation (PPP) model at Kinfra Industrial Park in Kuttippuram here.
The dredging waste, which consists shells, slurry and sand pebbles, from Ponnani harbour would be used in the first phase. Customers can buy the refined sand online, and the booking starts on Friday at www.portinfo.cdit.org, said Latheef Moideenkutty, managing director of Rajadhani Minerals Ltd which runs the plant.
The price would be around Rs 9,600 for five tonnes, which is only around half the current market price, he said. The private partner has only the processing contract with a 65 per cent share of the profit.
The ports department would monitor the functioning of the Rs 8 crore plant the company set up. “The government has plans to set up more such dredge sand refineries if this yields desired result in making the best use of the dredging waste from the ports,” says V.V Prasad, port conservator of Ponnai.
The waste with the lion's share of sand content is currently dumped into the sea to maintain a navigable depth of the ports and harbours in the state.
The plant will be inaugurated on Sunday by the minister for industries A.C. Moideen. Ministers Kadannappally Ramachandran, K.T. Jaleel and Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan would also be present.
