Cuttack: The implementation of civic body's integrated solid waste management project-2016 has run into rough weather again.

A councillor has challenged in Orissa High Court the finalisation of tender with Delhi-based Metro Waste Handling Private Limited as the lowest bidder at Rs 147.26 crore for the five-year contract for garbage collection and disposal in the city.

Giribala Behera, Congress councillor from ward No. 4, has filed a PIL seeking quashing of the bid finalised.

The petition was listed on Friday, but it could not be taken up due to shortage of time. It will be listed again on Monday. Behera has sought the court's direction for splitting the contract into separate components for the four zones into which the municipal corporation has been divided for the Swachh Bharat Mission here.

The Congress councillor has also raised questions about the civic administration's decision to go for such a high-cost bid.

The payment to the private party will be made on the basis of each ton of garbage collected and disposed of. The garbage disposal for a day had been estimated at 200 tonnes and Rs 4,035 was calculated as the charge to dispose of each tonne of garbage.

However, the Metro Waste Handling Private Limited had emerged as the lowest bidder by quoting Rs 6,309 a tonne as charges for waste disposal. A civic body official said after the post-bid negotiation the company had agreed to charge Rs 5,700 a tonne.

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 Cuttack Municipal Corporation continued with it on a monthly contract basis. Ramky was being paid Rs 2,400 for each tonne of garbage disposal.

Mired in legal tangle, the civic body had not been able to complete the tender process in its first attempt to implement the project.