It may be recalled that Star of Mysore (dated Nov. 7, 2016) had published an interview with B.D. Jatti’s grandson, Channu Jatti (in pic), who is into sand business in Philippines where he had said, “The only way to curb sand mafia is to import sand.”

Reacting to the State government’s decision to import sand from foreign countries, Channu Jatti, Director, Blue Max International, told SOM, here this morning over phone, “We had interacted with the State government and it has finally acted. They have called for a global tender because of the Transparency Act. We are also participating in the tender. The last date to apply is June 22 or 23. Once the tender process is completed immediately decision will be taken to identify the supplier.”

However, he said that Indonesia has banned sand mining and hence it was not correct to say that sand would be imported from there.

Jatti, who operates out of Makati in Manila, Philippines, said, “It is a huge challenge to import sand. The requirement of Karnataka is three lakh metric tons a month. The shipload will arrive at Mangaluru Port and it will be packed into 50 kg bags, then transported by lorries to Bengaluru. MSIL is in charge of distribution.”

One Port has very good packing plant facility. 20,000 bags of 50 kg per bag will be packed per day and it will be done through a conveyor system. “If sand can be transported through Railways, then it will be good as the rates will also come down. But if it has to be transported through lorries, it is quite a task,” said Jatti.

The MSIL will distribute the sand from Bengaluru to other smaller cities through vendors.

Meanwhile, the Government is also trying hard to promote M-sand as an alternative to sand.