North coastal dists start Sand Week celebrations

Visakhapatnam: Following instructions from chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy, authorities of the four north coastal districts began celebrating Sand Week on Thursday.

As per the agenda of the celebrations, every district collector is supposed to announce the availability of sand for supply and steps taken out by the authorities to bridge the gap between demand and supply of sand.

In his statement, Visakhapatnam collector Vinay Chand said that the district has sand reaches, but most people still depend on neighbouring districts like Vizianagaram, Srikakulam and East Godavari. Vizianagaram collector Hari Jawaharlal said that their district has 32 sand reaches. On the other hand, East Godavari collector D Muralidhar Reddy stated that the district has surplus sand for distribution. Srikakulam collector J Nivas said that his district has 33 sand reaches. About 28 lakh tonne sand was available in the district and so far, 3.67 lakh tonne sand has been supplied.

Sand Week celebrations will continue till November 20.