Patna: After cracking the whip on illegal sand miners in the state that created temporary shortage of the material and hit construction activities, the Bihar government is going to come up with a portal that would allow people to buy sand online.

The initiative has been taken by the mines and geology department which is planning to launch the portal in the first half of December.

"Using the portal, people would be place their sand order online and the material would be delivered at the address provided by them," a source in the department told The Telegraph.

The source added that the bill provided to the purchasers would have three components depicting the price of sand, transportation cost and the retailer's commission.

The Bihar government has purchased the source code of a software from Odisha which was being used by that state's government for monitoring mineral extraction. The purchase has been done at a cost of Rs 50 lakh.

Source code is like raw software on which one can develop one's own software as per the requirement of the system one intends to run.

A lot of behind-the-scene preparations are being done to make the new system effective. A beginning was made by appointing vendors who would be used for extracting sand from the mine.

"Unlike the earlier system when mining leases used to be given to firms for extracting sand, under the new system the Bihar state mining corporation would undertake the excavation work through its vendors who would have no direct role in its marketing. The material would be marketed by the corporation which would fix the rate," said the source, adding: "Trucks used for transporting the sand would have to be equipped with GPS instruments so that the movement of the vehicle can be tracked through the portal."

Similarly, the corporation is appointing retailers who would get a fixed percentage against the sale of the sand. The retailers would have to provide the details of the customer to whom they would sell their product, including the address and mobile number. The sale process of the sand would be completed only after retailers upload the sale receipt on the portal.

The details provided would be randomly crosschecked by the corporation from time to time to rule out the possibility of retailers indulging into hoarding of sand by submitting sale receipts to fictitious persons.

"Those in need of sand can either purchase sand through retailers or can directly approach the corporation through the portal for getting the sand supplied at the address of their choice," said the source.

The base rate of sand would be decided by the corporation. The purchase price for a customer would vary according to the transportation cost.

"Right from fixing of sand rate to transportation cost and dealers' commission, everything would be done in a transparent manner. The government will have details of sand right from the source of extraction to its final destination," said the source. The source claimed that sand prices were likely to come down once the new system would became functional as it would have inbuilt provisions to check the black marketing of the important construction material.

Terming the proposed system a good one, a Patna-based builder, who requested anonymity, said: "As a builder we need huge chunk of sand on regular basis. I hope that the new system works effectively and not become inefficient as one generally finds when services are provided by government agencies."