A garbage transit area in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, July 21: The bidding process for a solid waste management project in the city has come under a cloud.

The project in question is the proposed solid waste treatment plant at Bhuasuni. While the process of bidding for the plant is on, the same for lifting garbage from transit transport stations to the treatment plant site will start soon.

Sources said that a day before the bidding process, a Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) officer allegedly met a bidder. This has triggered apprehension that the latter might influence the BMC officer in terms of favouritism. Before the pre-bid consultation on any tender, a government officer is not supposed to meet a bidder.

However, the officer looking after solid waste management of the civic body denied that there was any meeting with any bidder before the official pre-bid session on July 13.

“The official pre-bid session was to discuss a few basic points and provide the bidders with basic know-how regarding the city,” the officer clarified.

Sources at the urban local body said the perspective bidder has been trying hard to get into the solid waste management business in the city.

“The bidder is already managing solid waste at another municipal corporation in Orissa. However, the track record is not worth replicating in the capital,” said a source.

The solid waste management process in the city has turned messy. Many complaints are being received with regard to discrepancies in the system.

“We have to get a healthy tradition in the bidding process so that even local players get an opportunity to serve the city better. But if the bidding does not take place in a fair manner, then what would happen to the sanitation process? The minus point in awarding tenders to big players sitting in metros is that they would never be seen here. They would execute the work through local contractors by sub-letting the contract,” a senior officer said.

Reacting to these allegations, the officer looking after solid waste management of BMC said: “The present bid is being prepared in a scientific manner. Never in the history of the civic body was a tender document prepared looking at all the aspects of solid waste management. Even if a bidder, after finalisation of tender, tries to act smart, then he/she would incur financial losses as per clauses included in the bidding process.”