The Government has deferred plans to begin quarrying for granite on Pulau Ubin.

The Government has deferred plans to begin quarrying for granite on Pulau Ubin.

This follows a significant improvement in the granite supply situation in the last two months, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said in a statement yesterday.

There is adequate granite supply coming in from both nearby and new distant sources in the region.

As a result of this diversification of supply, there has not been any drawdown from the national stockpile since May.

The BCA said granite prices are now stabilised between $23 and $29 a tonne.

In January, Indonesia imposed a ban on land sand exports and detained barges shipping granite to Singapore.

Plans to reopen Pulau Ubin’s former granite quarry - Kekek Quarry - were announced in April.

Over the past few months, the BCA had been carrying out preparatory works to reactivate the Kekek Quarry.

These included conducting an environmental impact study as well as carrying out water quality tests and regulatory reviews.

BCA said it has gained useful experience and has a better understanding of the process for reactivating a quarry.

And as the industry is able to diversify and import adequate granite from many sources, there is currently no need to begin quarrying in Ubin, the BCA said in its statement.

It added, however, that ‘we are still keeping all our options open, including reactivating our own quarries if necessary’.

BCA said: ‘The reactivation of our local quarries remains part of our contingency plan to ensure supply resilience of essential construction materials.’

The news was well received by nature groups.

Dr Ho Hua Chew, chairman of the conservation committee of the Nature Society, said: ‘A quarry is quite disturbing to wildlife, so this is definitely good news. I hope this decision is infinite.’

Source : Sunday Times