THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala government on Tuesday decided to import sand for construction purposes to overcome the shortage. A decision in this regard was taken at a high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here, an official release said here. The decision to import sand was in view of shortage and environment issues caused due to mining of sand from river beds in the state, it said. According to the release, there was no legal bar for importing sand from abroad and the Centre has allowed import of sand through Cochin port.
The State Mining and Geological Department would issue permits to those who wanted to import sand, it said. The government also decided to construct 11 modern slaughter houses in the state at a total cost of Rs 116 crore. The civic bodies would own and operate the abbatoirs. and Rs 100 crore would released through Kerala Infrastructure Development Fund Board for the same, the release said. There were about 10,000 slaughter houses in the state, but none has any modern facility. Modern abbatoirs was one of the programmes announced in the state budget for the 2017-18.
