The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has evaluated the technical and financial bids of garbage tenders for 167 wards. Senior civic officials reported a good response for the tenders. “Though the process was delayed, as the deadline to apply and the opening of the bids was postponed several times, work orders are likely to be issued soon,” said an official.
The tenders, most of which are in the range of ₹1 crore to ₹3 crore, have been submitted to the Standing Committee for Health. “Once approved by the committee, the work orders will be issued,” the official said.
Sources admitted that some of the bids are 35% below the estimated rate.
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“The rules do not state that such bids have to be rejected. As per rules, the tender should be awarded to the lowest bidder. However, this is abnormally low. The BBMP will now insist on a security deposit, which will be forfeited if the contractor does not work as per our terms. The contractor will also be blacklisted,” said a civic official. He added that that there is also a provision to cancel the tender if the contractor fails to perform after the work order is issued.
Re-tendering process
The BBMP will have to float tenders for the few wards where the bids received were rejected at the evaluation stage. Of the 198 wards, one ward did not receive any bids. That apart, the bids for 30 wards coming under the East zone are held up due to a stay in a case being heard in the High Court of Karnataka. “The tenders for these wards (not including the 30) will be floated again,” sources said.
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The BBMP floated tenders for collection of only wet waste though the 15-member committee headed by Mayor Gangambike had objected to separate tenders for collection of wet and dry waste.
Officials pointed out that the tender conditions were framed as per the mandate specified in the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, and after a detailed study.
“Both the Technical Guidance Committee and the earlier SWM Expert Committee had pointed out that the only way to solve the garbage issue in the city would be by ensuring that the different streams of waste are handled by separate contractors. By separating collection of dry and wet waste, we hope to eliminate the problem of aggregation of segregated waste,” said several BBMP officials.
Dry waste collection
With tenders for wet waste collection almost finalised, the BBMP is working on a proposal to hand over the responsibility of collection of dry waste to ragpickers. The proposal, once ready, will be submitted to the government for approval.
According to senior civic officials, around 9,000 ragpickers have been given identity cards by the BBMP.
The proposal will also take into account non-governmental organisations and women's self help groups that work in this sector.