M-sand Policy

Relevance: Prelims/mains: G.S paper I: Geography

In three months, Tamil Nadu will put in place an M-sand policy to promote its use as an alternative building material and eliminate sub-standard products through regulation of trade.

Key highlights

• Manufactured sand (M-Sand) is a substitute of river sand for concrete construction .
• Manufactured sand is produced from hard granite stone by crushing. It is manufactured using technology like High Carbon steel hit rock and then ROCK ON ROCK process which is synonymous to that of natural process undergoing in river sand information.
• The crushed sand is of cubical shape with grounded edges, washed and graded to as a construction material. The size of M-Sand is less than 4.75mm.
• Due to fast growing construction industry, the demand for sand has increased tremendously, causing deficiency of suitable river sand in most part of the word.