Cuttack, Sept. 10: The civic body has invited fresh bids for implementation of its integrated solid waste management project through outsourcing the collection and disposal of municipal solid waste.
"We have invited fresh bids following a Orissa High Court order. October 9 is the deadline to submit bids for the Rs 147.26 crore project, spread over five years," municipal commissioner Bikash Mohapatra told The Telegraph today.
The Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) made the tender documents available on September 5. Inviting fresh tenders assumes significance as the civic administration had been facing flak from councillors for delay in implementing the project, leading to disarray in municipal waste management and an appalling sanitation scenario across the city.
After the CMC's five-year contract with Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited of Hyderabad for garbage collection and disposal expired in April last year, the civic body continued with the company on a monthly contract basis and started a fresh tender process in August 2016, clearing the technical bids of two private companies.
But the high court issued an interim stay on the process last September. On July 18, the high court quashed provisions in the tender relating to financial eligibility criteria for participating bidders and directed the civic body to invite fresh tenders.
Among others, it had set aside the Rs 30 crore annual turnover criteria for bidders.
Mohapatra said: "The high court had directed us to fix a reasonable financial eligibility criterion. Accordingly, the annual turnover has been reduced to Rs 25.5 crore."
Under the Integrated Solid Waste Management Project - 2016, the civic administration plans to reorganise sanitation work by outsourcing sweeping, collection, storage, segregation, transportation, composting and disposal of municipal solid waste at the existing landfill site at Chakradharpur nearly 20km from here.
The 152sqkm municipal area houses 7 lakh people in 1.17 lakh households that generate 400 metric tonnes of waste daily. Civic officials conceded that around 200 metric tonnes were left uncollected as waste collection, both door-to-door and from collection points, was not organised.
Bikash Ranjan Behera, chairman of the CMC's Standing Committee for Licence and Appeal, said management of municipal solid waste had become a challenge due to the rising population.
"Keeping in view the burgeoning problems, the terms of the contract have been set according to recommendations of the Swachh Bharat Mission", Behera said.
Gamhandia resident Pravas Parida said: "Municipal waste management is a major area in which the CMC has failed miserably. The talk of conforming to Swachh Bharat Mission recommendations sound good, but time will tell how the ongoing chaos in the city is tackled."
