VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh Government is likely to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a public sector undertaking with regards to the mining and supply of sand in the State.

As per reports published in TNIE, the officials of the Mining department might enter into an agreement with Metal Scrap Trade Corporation (MSTC) next week.

Whether the agency will take up the task of implementing the revised sand policy of the State government on its own or it will appoint another agency is yet to be finalised. The AP Principal Secretary (Mines and Panchayat Raj and Rural Development) Gopala Krishna Dwivedi said that the talks are in the final stage with the PSU, after they had received response from several Central agencies about implementing the revised sand policy and explaining the proposal to them.

The AP Government has recently cleared the new sand policy where it has decided to hand over the entire sand mining activity to a single entity. The State further intends to seek help from a Central Government agency for this purpose. Under the new policy, people would be authorised to examine the quality of sand and transport it in their own vehicles after the booking was done online. The Cabinet also proposed a price list that would vary based on the delivery point from each supply or mining point.