Cuttack: The civic body has decided to begin post-bid negotiations with Metro Waste Handling Private Limited for the Rs 147.26-crore integrated solid waste management project contract.

Municipal commissioner Bikash Ranjan Mohapatra told The Telegraph on Saturday that the civic body will begin negotiations after the New Delhi-based company emerged as the lowest bidder with a bid that was "over budget" for the five-year project. The decision was taken while the municipal council gave its approval on Friday to the tender process.

"A committee headed by the mayor will negotiate to bring down the cost as much as possible and the process will be completed within a week," Mohapatra said.

"After that it will be sent to the government for approval", he added.

The civic body had invited tenders for execution of the project over a period of five years with a budget of Rs 147.26 crore, putting the expenditure on garbage collection and disposal at Rs 2.45 crore per month against Rs 1.46 crore at present.

The payment to the contractor will be made on the basis of per tonnes of garbage collected and disposed, estimated to be at 200 tonnes per day.

"Metro Waste Handling Private Limited emerged as the lowest bidder by quoting Rs 6,309 per tonne that worked out to Rs 230.27 crore, overshooting our budget by Rs 83 crore. Hence, we opted for the post-bid negotiation route," a member of the civic body's standing committee for licence, appeals and contracts said.

After the five year contract for garbage collection and disposal with Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited of Hyderabad expired in April 2016, the civic body employed it on a monthly contract basis at Rs 2,400 per metric tonne.

The project budget had calculated charges of Rs 4,035 per tonne.

The integrated solid waste management project involves sweeping, collection, storage, segregation, transportation, composting and disposal of municipal solid waste at the existing landfill site.

Telenga Bazar resident Pradip Sahu said: "Cuttack has been reeling from waste management and the lack of direction in dealing with it. The integrated solid waste management project is expected to help, but there has been inordinate delay in implementation."