About 80 kilometres off Allahabad, the erstwhile princely constituency is known the world over for its fine quality of silica sand, with an iron content as low as 0.4 to 0.6 per cent, ideal for the manufacture of superior quality glass. And though silica mines are found in Rajasthan, Gujarat and some parts of Maharashtra, Shankergarh alone contributes almost 75 per cent of the total silica production in the country.

According to Mahendra Pratap Singh, who owns a few of the largest silica mines in the area, the region in and around Shankergarh is a massive source of silica.

Some of the types of silica sand include the white quality, which is the most superior grade sand used for the manufacture oftinted or coloured glass and the yellow quality silica sand, which is the coarser variety of sand with high iron content used by foundries for casting and moulding. Shankergarh produces the largest amount of white quality silica sand.

Singh says though Shankergarh supplies silica sand to states ranging from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Haryana, Orissa and Maharashtra, the maximum quantities go to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal largely because the exorbitant freight costs of sending the sand to distant places makes it uneconomic both for the buyers and sellers.

For instance, while the cost of white quality silica sand currently hovers around Rs 200 to Rs 275 per metric tonne, the cost of railway freight is almost double at round Rs 400 per tonne. Paucity of wagons supplied by the railways has further accentuated the problem. In view of this, Shankergarh mainly supplies silica sand to the eight to ten major glass factories in the nearby states. The factories include the Indo-Asahi Glassworks,Philips India, Gujarat Guardian, Hindustan National Glassworks and the So many Brothers. The maximum demand for yellow quality silica sand comes from the public sector Chittaranjan Locomotive Works where it is extensively used in the foundries for casting and moulding.

Though the Uttar Pradesh government regulates the mining activity in the area in so far as it leases the mines to contractors who hire labour to extract sand from the mines. The quantity and quality of silica sand produced in Shankergarh has suffered over the years largely on account of the fact that the local contractors have been unwilling to pump in resources to implement modern mining equipment and technologies.

Says Singh, "Work in the area is only partially mechanised and much of the activity from extraction of sand from the quarries to washing in washing plants and drying to reduce the iron and aluminium percentages and improve quality is done manually. "What compounds the woes of the contractors is the non-availability of labour aswell during the festivals and at the time of harvesting and sowing of crops. There is no committed full-time labour for the mining industry and most of the labour that we do get engages in mining only to supplement their agricultural income and therefore are neither fully trained nor available around the year."

Thus, there are seasonal variations in production. Not only that, production is also regulated in accordance with demand. "Several times, the contractors get contracts on a yearly basis at pre-decided prices and regulate their production accordingly." In terms of prices, industry observers maintain that prices of silica sand are determined by quality, demand and even vary from one contractor to the other. While there are about 8-10 big contractors in the area, there are a total of 50 to 60 middle and small contractors in the region.

Interestingly, while the glass industry in the country has been witnessing a recession of late, the demand for Shankergarh silica sand has not slumped mainly becauseseveral glass factories have come up in the past few years, specially float glass factories.

This has, however, increased the competition among the local silica sand contractors as the requirement for good quality and has increased, says Singh.