The solid block price in south India’s official rate books runs about Rs 31 to 51 for a 4 inch block, Rs 42 to 73 for a 6 inch block and Rs 47 to 100 for an 8 inch block, per piece, with GST extra where the book states its basis. Tamil Nadu’s 2025-26 schedule pays Rs 40, Rs 60 and Rs 100 delivered to site. Telangana’s 2025-26 schedule pays Rs 31 and Rs 63 landed. Kerala PWD’s October to December 2026 market list puts the 8 inch block at Rs 47 to 60 in most districts and Rs 78 in Thiruvananthapuram. GST on concrete blocks is 18%. Per sq ft of finished wall, Puducherry’s book puts solid block at about Rs 183, AAC at Rs 189 and red brick at Rs 228.

What should a 6 inch solid block cost in Chennai this month? Tamil Nadu’s own schedule of rates, in force since July 2025, says Rs 60 a piece delivered to your site, and you will pay Rs 70.80 once 18% GST goes on the bill. That one number hides a lot, so this piece sets the official figures side by side and then turns them into a cost per square foot of wall.

Searches for block prices come mostly from the south, from Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai to Bengaluru and the Kerala towns, and three southern state rate books price the block per piece. Sizes and the IS 2185 grades are covered in the solid block size guide, so we will not repeat them here.

Solid block price per piece in the south Indian rate books

Three official books give a rate per block. The inch names below follow trade usage: a 4 inch block is the 100 mm width, 6 inch is 150 mm and 8 inch is 200 mm, all with a 400 x 200 mm face.

Book and item 4 inch 6 inch 8 inch Basis
Tamil Nadu SOR 2025-26 (from 22 Jul 2025), M-2828 / M-2829 / M-2827 Rs 40 Rs 60 Rs 100 At site of work, excluding GST
Telangana CSR 2025-26 (from 1 Jun 2025), TBSC-A.II-17 / A.II-15, 5 N/mm² Rs 31 not listed Rs 63 Landing cost incl. conveyance, loading and unloading; excluding taxes
Telangana CSR 2025-26, TBSC-A.II-18 / A.II-16, 7.5 N/mm² Rs 33 not listed Rs 66 Same
Kerala PWD market rates, Oct-Dec 2026, MR5 / MR3 / MR1 (11 places) Rs 31.50 to 51 Rs 42 to 73 Rs 47 to 78 GST and delivery basis not stated

Kerala’s list is the freshest, published district by district between 2 and 22 October 2026 on the Kerala PWD PRICE portal. Most places sit close together:

Kerala place (published) 4 inch 6 inch 8 inch
Thiruvananthapuram plain (2 Oct) Rs 51 Rs 73 Rs 78
Kollam (5 Oct) Rs 38.50 Rs 48 Rs 54.50
Alappuzha, Cherthala area (6 Oct) Rs 38 Rs 48 Rs 55
Kottayam, other areas (15 Oct) Rs 41 Rs 46 Rs 60
Ernakulam, Aluva (9 Oct) Rs 42 Rs 44 Rs 47
Thrissur, Mukundapuram (8 Oct) Rs 45 Rs 46 Rs 55
Palakkad (13 Oct) Rs 45 Rs 52 Rs 55
Malappuram, Nilambur area (12 Oct) Rs 45 Rs 52 Rs 55
Kozhikode (9 Oct) Rs 45 Rs 55 Rs 55
Kannur (6 Oct) Rs 32 Rs 42 Rs 52
Kasaragod (22 Oct) Rs 31.50 Rs 42 Rs 47

Tamil Nadu’s figure is one state-wide rate, so an estimate in Coimbatore or Madurai starts from the same figures as one in Chennai. It is noticeably higher than Kerala’s market list for the 8 inch block. For Bengaluru we found no official per-piece block rate: Karnataka PWD’s website carries quarterly issue rates for materials such as cement and steel, not blocks. We have not quoted shop rates for any city, because no dated, named source publishes them.

GST on solid blocks: 18%

A solid concrete block is an article of concrete under HSN heading 6810. That heading sits in Schedule II, the 9% central tax list, of Notification 9/2025-Central Tax (Rate), in force from 22 September 2025. Add 9% state tax and the bill carries 18%. The later amendments we checked, up to 02/2026 of October 2026, do not touch heading 6810.

All three books quote before tax. Tamil Nadu and Telangana both state that their rates exclude tax. Kerala’s list does not say either way. A Rs 63 Telangana block becomes Rs 74.34 with GST; a Rs 55 Kerala block becomes Rs 64.90 if the seller’s price is ex-GST. Fly ash blocks are taxed differently, under the brick scheme at 12% or 6%, and the GST and HSN codes guide explains where that line falls. Ask for the HSN code on the quotation, not only on the final bill.

Loading and transport

Check what a quoted price includes before you compare two suppliers. Telangana’s rate is a landing cost that already covers conveyance, loading and unloading. Tamil Nadu’s applies at the site of work, and its general notes allow no extra conveyance on these materials. Kerala’s list does not state a delivery basis.

If you are collecting from a yard, Kerala PWD’s Ernakulam list prices a 10 tonne tipper at Rs 7 per tonne per km. An 8 inch block weighs roughly 27 to 36 kg, so a 10 tonne load is about 280 to 370 blocks. A 20 km trip costs about Rs 1,400 for the load, which adds Rs 3.70 to 5 to each block. At 40 km that doubles to Rs 7.50 to 10, before you pay anyone to unload and stack by hand. On a Rs 47 block, that is about a fifth of the price. Allow for broken pieces too; ask the supplier how many per load they will replace.

Cost per sq ft of wall: solid block vs AAC vs red brick

A per-piece price means little until you know how many pieces a wall takes. A 400 x 200 mm face needs 12.5 blocks per square metre, or 1.16 per sq ft. A 600 x 200 mm AAC block needs 8.33 per square metre, or 0.77 per sq ft. A 9 inch brick wall takes about 494 bricks per cubic metre on CPWD’s count, or 10.56 per sq ft of wall face. Multiply by each book’s own unit prices and you get the material cost of the units alone:

Wall (units only, per sq ft of wall face) Tamil Nadu SOR 2025-26 Telangana CSR 2025-26
8 inch solid block wall Rs 116 (Rs 100 x 1.16) Rs 73 (Rs 63 x 1.16)
8 inch AAC wall (600 x 200 x 200 mm) Rs 71 (Rs 91.60 x 0.77) Rs 93 (Rs 120 x 0.77)
9 inch red brick wall Rs 72 (Rs 6.795 x 10.56) Rs 95 (Rs 9 x 10.56)
6 inch solid block wall Rs 70 not listed
4 inch solid block wall Rs 46 Rs 36

The two books disagree. On Telangana’s rates the 8 inch block wall is the cheapest of the three by about Rs 20 a sq ft. On Tamil Nadu’s, the Rs 100 block makes it the dearest, by more than Rs 40. On Kerala’s market list, the same wall costs Rs 55 to 91 in blocks. So the per-piece rate in your own town decides it, not a national rule.

Mortar shifts the picture back toward blocks. A 9 inch brick wall holds about 5.3 litres of mortar per sq ft, against about 1.4 litres for an 8 inch block wall: nearly four times the cement and sand, and more mason time. That is why the finished-wall rates in Puducherry’s Schedule of Rates 2024-25 (from 14 August 2024) put blocks in front. Item 26.69.1, a 200 mm wall of factory-made solid blocks above plinth, is Rs 9,831.67 a cubic metre, about Rs 183 per sq ft of wall. AAC (item 6.47) works out to about Rs 189, and burnt clay brick (item 6.4.2, 230 mm) to about Rs 228. Note that Puducherry’s block item specifies M10 blocks made from construction and demolition waste.

Government building works are estimated with these same items, so a contractor pricing walls for a public job should check the book before quoting; live works are listed under government construction tenders. For brick walls in more detail, see the brick work rate per cubic meter, and for weight and insulation, the AAC blocks vs red bricks comparison. Boundary walls priced per running foot are covered in the compound wall cost guide.

What to check on a solid block quotation

Ask for the size in millimetres, not inches, and the strength grade: Telangana prices a 7.5 N/mm² block Rs 2 to 3 above a 5 N/mm² one, so a cheap quote may be the weaker block. Ask whether the price is delivered and unloaded, and whether GST is inside it or on top. Finally, count the blocks per square foot yourself before you compare a block quote with a brick quote.

Thinking of making blocks rather than buying them? The paver block business guide runs the yard numbers, and equipment finance covers the machines.

Schedule of rates figures are official estimating rates for the dates and states shown and are not shop quotes; per sq ft figures are our arithmetic. Rates and taxes change — confirm the price and delivery terms with your supplier or the issuing department before you order.