Cuttack, Sept. 1: Streamlining sanitation work in the city could be delayed further as the tender invited by the municipal corporation for a solid waste management project has received poor response. A new tender has been issued again.
The decision was taken following the cancellation of the tender for garbage collection work after only a single bid was received, rendering it invalid. The Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) finds itself in a spot of bother as the five-year contract for solid waste management with Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited (Reel) of Hyderabad expired in April.
Reel drew flak as lack of mechanism for monitoring garbage collection work has led to poor sanitation in various parts of the city, especially in the past four months.
The corporation invited bids from private operators for the project on July 25. "The last date to submit the bids was August 25, but because a single bid was received, we have invited fresh bids again by September 14," municipal commissioner Gyana Das told The Telegraph today.
According to official sources, eight private parties had initially responded to the national tender and took part in the pre-bid session on August 8. During the meeting, the participants sought amendments to some of the clauses in the contract on grounds of being stringent.
While the civic body expected bidders to have average annual turnover of more than Rs 30 crore for the last three years, some of the participants wanted the annual turnover to be reduced to Rs 8 crore from Rs 15 crore.
The penalty indicated in the contract for the service level violation was also sought to be revised on grounds of being very high. However, the municipal corporation dismissed them. Subsequently, seven of the eight companies who took part in the pre-bid meeting did not submit their bids.
Only one bid was received. "Revision in penalty provisions in the contract was not acceptable as they were introduced to streamline sanitation work," said Bikash Ranjan Behera, head of the standing committee for licence and appeal.
