The much talked about Red Sandal Auction finally kick started today. Andhra Pradesh government is auctioning 4160 tonnes of the timber in the first phase of the total 8584 tonnes. The auction will go on till December 1st and will take place from 12PM to 3PM every day one depot after the other. 798 interested buyers inspected the timber logs personally so far and out of which 337 are from other countries.
Central Organization, MSTC Limited which operates under the administrative control of the Ministry of Steel, Government of India has taken the responsibility of inviting tenders from the buyers. Andhra Pradesh government even took up extensive publicity in foreign countries so as to attract more buyers.
The red sandal logs are divided in to three grades with the least grade costing 10 Lakhs per ton. Chandra Babu Naidu’s government had pinned high hopes on this auction to get as many funds as possible for the loan waiver scheme.
