Cuttack: The municipal corporation went for a post-bid negotiation with New Delhi-based Metro Waste Handling Private Limited for the five-year Rs 147.26-crore integrated solid waste management project contract on Thursday.
Municipal commissioner Bikash Ranjan Mohapatra told The Telegraph that the negotiation with representatives of the company had gone well. He hoped that the lowest bidder would bring down its bid considerably.
The civic body adopted the post-bid negotiation route as the company had emerged lowest bidder with a bid that came on "over budget".
The payment to private party will be made on the basis of per tonnes of garbage collected and disposed of. The per day garbage disposal had been estimated at 200 tonnes.
The Metro Waste Handling Private Limited, New Delhi, had emerged as the lowest bidder by quoting charges of Rs 6,309 per tonne which worked out to Rs 230.27 crore, marking an over budget of Rs 83 crore in five years.
The project budget had calculated charges at Rs 4,035 per tonne. A committee headed by the mayor had undertaken the post-bid negotiation. "We expect the over-budget will come down by Rs 48 crore to Rs 50 crore," said Mohapatra.
Two representatives of the company had taken part in the negotiation with the committee. Later, the committee was assured that the company would make its decision known soon. The representatives of the company agreed to bring down their charge per tonne of municipal waste from Rs 6,309 to Rs 5,900. But the committee expressed its inability to settle with any amount more than Rs 4,900 or at best Rs 5,000 per tonne.
The inability was expressed citing government objections to such high over-budget cost of the lowest bidder, a member of the negotiation committee said.
The municipal council had approved the tender finalisation process on December 15, but expressed reservations over the high cost quoted by the lowest bidder.
After the five year contract with Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited of Hyderabad for garbage collection and disposal in the city expired in April 2016, the civic body has continued with it on monthly contract basis. Ramky was being paid Rs 2,400 per tonne.
