Prime Minister, Dasho Tshering Tobgay said, a working committee will be initiated after the truckers who transport sand requested him to look into the new system where the transaction of sand is rooted through the Natural Resources Development Corporation Limited (NRDCL). The working committee will examine the price and transportation rates of the sand.
Prime Minister stated the reason for examining this matter is to see whether the truckers are really at loss. It is important to look at the price and the transportation rates so that the ones who are constructing houses also do not suffer added the Prime Minister.
“If the sand needs to be sold then the seller has to go through certain process to sell and similarly there is a process for the buyer as well. It is against the law if someone buys sand at a cheaper rate and then sells it at a higher rate when there are many buyers,” asserted the Prime Minister. “Whoever is involved in such a case will be punished. Similarly, the work or the responsibility of the truckers is not to buy and sell sand. Their responsibility is to transport and it is their right to get paid for this job.”
The truckers in an effort to reverse the new rates introduced by the NRDCL had approached the Prime Minister three times.
Yesterday, some truckers and contractors in Wangdue Phodrang were reluctant to transport sand to Thimphu after NRDCL slashed the transportation rate. Earlier the transportation rate was Nu 7,720 per truckload from Wangdue to Olakha in Thimphu. But the revised rate which was implemented recently comes to Nu 6,772.
Truckers and contractors told BBS that the new rate is low and it cannot meet their expenses. Customers directly pay to NRDCL. The corporation took over the ownership of sand supply including the transportation since June last year. It is to make sand affordable to all and prevent illegal supply of sand.
Before the system came in place, fares were inconsistent as truckers charged their own rates. A truckload of sand, transported from Wangdue to Thimphu costs as high as Nu 16,000 in the past. However, Natural Resources Development Corporation Limited declined to comment on the matter.
