The river sand price in India is set state by state. Telangana’s TGMDC sells coarse sand at ₹1,500 a tonne at its Hyderabad sand bazaars from January 2026, Karnataka fixed ₹850 a tonne for government-mined sand in June 2025, and Andhra Pradesh supplies it free with the buyer paying operating and transport costs. Kerala PWD’s October 2026 market rate is ₹2,500 to ₹2,750 a cubic metre for coarse sand. Transport and 5% GST come on top, and over a long haul transport costs more than the sand.

River sand is one of the few building materials whose price a government actually fixes. Some states sell it through a corporation at a notified rate per tonne. One gives it away and charges only for handling. Others publish what their engineers must assume it costs. That is why a quote in Hyderabad and a quote in Kochi can look unrelated. They are priced on different rules, and often in different units.

River sand price by state: the official figures

State and source Price What it covers
Telangana, TGMDC sand bazaars, Hyderabad (from 19 Jan 2026) ₹1,500 a tonne, coarse sand At the stockyard; transport extra. Fine sand was ₹1,800 a tonne in 2025
Karnataka, government order of 25 Jun 2025 ₹850 a tonne Sale price for sand mined by government bodies for public and government works
Andhra Pradesh, Free Sand Policy (Jul 2024) No sale price Buyer pays operating cost and transport; seigniorage, DMF and MERIT of ₹88 a tonne waived in Oct 2024
Kerala PWD local market rate, Oct to Dec 2026 ₹2,750 a cum (Thiruvananthapuram); ₹2,500 a cum (Ernakulam) Coarse sand, zone III; published 12 Oct and 9 Oct 2026
Maharashtra PWD SSR 2022-23 ₹1,670 a cum Natural sand (or VSI-grade manufactured sand) at the quarry; excludes royalty and GST
Uttarakhand PWD, revised 2024-25 ₹960 to ₹1,520 a cum Coarse sand basic rate across Rudrapur, Raipur and Roorkee blocks; royalty included
Tamil Nadu SOR 2025-26 At government sand depot rate The schedule prices sand as per G.O.Ms.No.4 of 6 Jan 2022, at the depot

The first three rows are what a buyer pays a state agency. The rest are what a public works department assumes when it estimates a job, which is the closest thing to an official market price in states that do not sell sand themselves.

Hyderabad and Telangana: a fixed price per tonne

Telangana reserves sand trading to its own corporation. Its note on the Hyderabad sand bazaars at Abdullapurmet, Vattinagulapally and Bowarampet set the price at ₹1,600 a tonne for coarse sand and ₹1,800 for fine sand, through the year, with transportation extra. From 19 January 2026 the corporation cut coarse sand to ₹1,500 a tonne at the Bowrampet, Abdullapurmet, Adibatla and Vattinagulapally bazaars, booked daily from 10 am, and it offered ₹1,450 a tonne under its 2026 advance-booking scheme.

Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh

Karnataka’s government order of 25 June 2025 fixed ₹850 a tonne as the sale price for sand that government-owned bodies mine from fourth-order and larger streams and from dam and reservoir areas and supply to the public and to government works. The mining body keeps ₹425 and pays ₹425 to the state, which covers royalty, DMF and TCS. The price was ₹700 a tonne under the 2020 order. Separately, Karnataka’s January 2025 amendment to its minor mineral rules sets royalty on ordinary sand at ₹80 a tonne.

Andhra Pradesh went the other way. Its Free Sand Policy of 8 July 2024 takes no revenue share for the state; the buyer pays the cost of operations and statutory levies at the source, and the transport. In October 2024 the state also exempted seigniorage, DMF and MERIT, then ₹88 a tonne. What remains is handling and freight, and the state notified uniform transport rates, inclusive of GST, per tonne per kilometre:

Distance slab Tractor (4.5 t) 6-tyre truck (10 t) 10 to 14-tyre truck (18 to 35 t)
0 to 10 km ₹13.50 ₹10.70 ₹9.40
11 to 40 km ₹12.80 ₹10.20 ₹8.90
40 to 80 km ₹6.30 ₹6.30 ₹6.30
More than 80 km no rate given ₹3.50 ₹3.50

Each slab is paid separately (G.O.Ms.No.52, 14 September 2024). By that table, 10 tonnes carried the first 10 km on a six-tyre truck costs ₹1,070 in freight alone.

Kerala: the highest published rates

Kerala PWD publishes local market rates every quarter for estimating. For October to December 2026, coarse sand (zone III) is ₹2,750 a cubic metre and fine sand (zone IV) ₹2,535 in Thiruvananthapuram plain terrain, and ₹2,500 and ₹2,550 in the Kanayannur, Aluva and Paravur taluks of Ernakulam. They are the highest per cubic metre in this article, and they are dated October 2026.

Maharashtra: sand rate per brass

Maharashtra buyers count in brass, and one brass is 100 cubic feet, about 2.83 cubic metres. The PWD SSR 2022-23 itself equates the ₹600-a-brass royalty with ₹211.95 a cubic metre. Its material rates, at the quarry and excluding GST, are ₹1,670 a cubic metre for natural sand (the same row covers VSI-grade manufactured sand), ₹1,781 for screened natural sand for plaster, and ₹1,600 for coarse sand at site on road works. At ₹1,670, natural sand works out to about ₹4,726 a brass before royalty and transport.

Royalty is paid on top. A state resolution of 16 February 2024 put sand royalty at ₹1,200 a brass in the Mumbai metropolitan region and ₹600 elsewhere, and for sand the SSR adds a 2% surcharge and 10% District Mineral Foundation cess, ₹237.37 a cubic metre in all. Under its sand policy of April 2025, Maharashtra moved sand sale to auctions.

How much sand is in one load, and what it costs to haul

Maharashtra’s SSR works sand carriage on a 10-tonne truck carrying 5.75 cubic metres. At a 10 km lead it prices the trip at ₹1,984.62 with machine loading, or ₹345.15 a cubic metre. Odisha’s 2022 schedule takes a ten-tonne truck as carrying 5.5 cubic metres of sand or gravel. So a 10-tonne tipper load is about 5.5 to 5.75 cubic metres.

Uttarakhand’s 2024-25 block sheets show how distance moves the delivered rate on the same date. Coarse sand at Rudrapur is ₹960 basic and ₹1,141.60 delivered over 10 km; at Roorkee it is ₹1,520 basic and ₹1,914.60 delivered over 35 km. If you run your own trucks, compare tippers and dump trucks by payload, and see the full per-load sum in the sand supply business breakdown.

River sand or M-sand

Where river sand is scarce, schedules price crushed sand lower. Maharashtra’s SSR lists crushed sand at ₹1,200 a cubic metre against ₹1,670 for natural or VSI-grade sand, and allows manufactured sand where natural sand is not available, after a mix design. Tamil Nadu’s 2025-26 schedule lists M-sand at ₹1,578.80 and plastering P-sand at ₹1,584.70 a cubic metre. Sizes, grading and where each can be used are covered in the guide to quarry dust and M-sand.

GST on river sand

Natural sand, heading 2505, sits in Schedule I of Notification 9/2025-Central Tax (Rate), at 2.5% central GST from 22 September 2025, which is 5% with the matching state GST. The rate is unchanged from the 2017 schedule. The GST and HSN codes guide covers the other materials on the bill.

The bottom line

The river sand price in India runs from free at an Andhra Pradesh depot to ₹2,750 a cubic metre on Kerala’s October 2026 rate card, with Telangana at ₹1,500 a tonne and Karnataka at ₹850 a tonne for government-mined sand. A 10-tonne truck holds 5.5 to 5.75 cubic metres, and the haul plus 5% GST decide the final bill. The TGMDC sand portal updates and Karnataka’s sand price order of June 2025 are the two to check first.

If hauling sand is your business, line up equipment finance for the tipper and loader, and look for supply and road work among live tenders and project opportunities.

Prices here are as published by the state agencies and departments named, on the dates shown, and are indicative only. Sand prices, royalty and supply rules change often and differ by district and season. Confirm the current rate with the state sand portal, your supplier or contractor before you book or bid.