Karnataka: Soon, buy sand through new app

BENGALURU: You can soon buy sand using your smartphone, just the way you order groceries or apparels. Pay digitally and have it delivered at your doorstep. What's more, it will be available for much below the market price.
Once the app is launched, the government intends to supply sand at a maximum rate of Rs 1,500 per tonne. The current market rate is close to Rs 3,250 to Rs 3,500 per tonne.
Just about a month after the government launched a new sand policy, it is all set to roll out a mobile application - Maralu Mithra - to enable consumers book online and get sand delivered wherever they want.
A customer has to provide name, email and postal address before indicating the qua ntity and quality (coarse, medium and fine). He also has to select the type of sand (river/M-sand) and the nearest place where it's available, based on which the transportation cost would be decided.
Once the order is placed, the person can check the status till the consign ment rea ches him. This model was successfully implemented in Udupi district last year on an experimental basis and it's now being extended across the state.
"We are planning to upgrade the mobile application so as to provide the location of the block from where sand is extracted," said mines and geology secretary M Maheshwar Rao. Sources said the government is also in talks with transporter associations to register them via the app so that transportation cost and location from where sand will be ferried can be known in advance.
Mines and geology minister CC Patil hopes the application will help bring about more accountability and transparency in sand distribution and put an end to illegal sand mining in the state. "The application could be a gamechanger," he added.