kolhapur the poor availability of river sand and its shooting prices has severely hit the real estate sector in the stateonly a couple of months ago the developers overcame the demonetisation pangs and were forced to accept the newly introduced real estate regulatory authority act rerathe developers and architects claim that 60 of the projects have slowed down due to shortage of river sand and its increased prices a citybased builder paras oswal said the sand component forms about 8 to 10 of the total project the hike in their prices has left the sector in a bad shape at present few developers are still using crush sand but its use needs an expansion as the production of river sand is on a steep decline steps must be taken to increase its availability and make it more cost effective the associations of the architects and developers are trying to convince the builders to use crush sand also better known as manufactured sand they have also organised seminars and discussions for the samethe new rera act has stringent provisions against the builders for failing to complete the project and transferring it to the buyer on time however the developers claim that the government has not taken their major shortcomings into consideration they say that the nonavailability of sand is one of the major cause for the delayrajendra sawant citybased architect said the mining of river sand has been on a decline due to several restrictions imposed by the courts the rise in price of river by 150 times in last two years and its availability is a major concern around 60 of the projects in and around the city have slowed down because of that the crush sand can be a good alternative for river sand however in order to increase its use we have to spread awareness among buildersas per the supreme courts order that was issued three years ago there is a restriction on mining sand in the shallow water bodies also the mechanised mining has been stopped which has further slowed down the supply the citybased builders gets their sand from northern parts of karnataka such as vijapur and gokak at present the river sand cost around rs 10500 for every brass which was rs 3500 per brass two years ago