Team Blitz India
Thiruvananthapuram: About 300 quarries operating with the permission of the district environmental impact assessment authorities will be closed once the permit expires. It has been decided not to extend such permits and this will detrimentally affect the construction sector in the state.
A total of 643 quarries are operating in the state. The operation of about 300 quarries that have obtained permits since 2019 will stop by the end of March. The permits of the remaining 343 quarries will also expire in the next few years.
There are more than a thousand pending applications for permits in the Mining and Geology authority department. With the closure of the quarries, the construction of the national highway work will also be in crisis. The Kerala government has directed that the respective district authorities should solve the quarry problems without affecting the NH construction.
However, the state environmental impact study committee and the mining and geology department are of the view that the permits of more than 300 quarries should not be renewed.
The CM directed the mining and geology department to hand over the revenue quarries to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for mining. It is estimated that there are 100 revenue quarries in the state.
The mining and geology department has taken the position that once the applications of the revenue quarries are received, an inspection will be carried out.
