By Ifham Nizam 

The Technology Services Company will be upgraded as a government agency to prevent the exploitation of consumers by the sale of low-quality sand at high prices by sand smugglers, a senior official of the Environment Ministry said. 

 In addition to the company’s existing sand mining and marketing activities, it also plans to contribute to the production of calcium carbonate, organic fertilizers and organic herbicides. 

 Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera yesterday said that the supply of sand for the government development projects should be properly managed. 

 The current amount of sand required for government development projects for the period 2021-2025 was 55 million cubic metres. “But as we have now identified, we can only get 41 million cubic metres of sand during that period,” he said. 

 According to Minister Amaraweera the Technical Services Company had been instructed to set up several sand supplies centres to supply sand at lower prices. Two of these centres would be established at Ambatale and Kegalle first. Thereafter, three more centers were planned to be set up at Athurugiriya, Ratmalana and Kandy. 

 The Technical Services Company, a 100 percent state-owned company under the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau of the Ministry of Environment, has made a profit of Rs. 20.81 million in the first four months of 2021. 

 The company had incurred losses in 2020 and was able to turn a profit this year due to the steps taken to increase the efficiency of the company’s staff. 

 The total revenue earned from the services provided by this company during the first four months of this year was Rs. 239.76.M Expenditure on salaries and other activities during the same period was Rs. 218.95 million. 

 Technical Services Company, Chief Executive Officer, Attorney-at-Law, Thusitha Aluthpatabendige said the profit for the first four months was Rs.20.81 million.