No taker of Rohtas administration bid to blast roads in hills

SASARAM: The Rohtas district administration’s plan to blast the approach roads leading to the Kaimur hills in order to check illegal stone quarrying has hit a stumbling block as it could not find anyone interested in the tenders floated last month for the purpose.
The tender was invited on April 30 and May 8 was the last date to submit papers.
District administration sources said no one dared to participate in the tender process fearing the syndicate involved in the illegal stone quarrying in the hills.The administration had decided to create big trenches by blasting the approach roads leading to Karbandiya and Bansa panchayats in the Kaimur hills to prevent the movement of heavy vehicles in the area.
As per the tender, huge trenches measuring 20ft wide and 20 to 40 feet deep were to be made by blasting the roads.
However, officials on record said it was probably because local companies did not have the expertise in blasting roads.
Assistant director (mines and mineral) Gyanendra Kumar told this newspaper that the process of floating fresh tenders had been initiated and it would be published in the newspapers soon. “We expect some firms from neighbouring states with expertise in mining will bid this time,” he said.
Sources said the then Rohtas SP, in 2013, had tried to stop illegal mining by cutting the road by excavators after the government’s ban on stone mining in 2009 had not deterred the illegal miners.
“More than 400 cases have been registered since the 2009 ban. To ensure action, the state government has suspended several policemen found hand in gloves with illegal miners. But not much has been achieved, forcing the administration to take a decision to blast the roads,” said a source following a review meeting by CM Nitish Kumar in December last year.