Bengaluru: Even as the city’s revamped door-to-door waste collection rollout suffered a setback after several contractors declined to accept work orders, fresh bids received by Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Ltd (BSWML) for some of the re-tendered packages have come in at premiums significantly lower than the 14% originally approved by govt.The agency had been forced to re-tender multiple packages after contractors, who had secured the deals, argued that the 14% premium over the estimated contract value was inadequate.According to BSWML, re-tendered package 7 (Gandhinagar) attracted a premium of close to 4.5%, package 9 (Rajajinagar) 7%, package 10 (Malleswaram) 9% and package 19 (Bommanahalli) 9.8%. All four packages had earlier been approved at a premium of around 14%. BSWML CEO Kare Gowda said the fresh bids undermine the argument that the approved premium was insufficient. “If premium was the main problem, why would new bidders quote less than 10%? Once govt approval is obtained and work orders are not accepted, it results in a huge loss of time and delays rollout of services,” he told TOI.Officials said lower premiums would result in savings for the agency while enabling implementation of the new waste collection model. Another senior BSWML official said the refusal to accept certain work orders appeared to stem more from contractors’ internal issues than concerns over the premium itself.The waste management overhaul, covering 33 city packages, has faced repeated delays, prompting the agency to re-tender several contracts and restart parts of the procurement process.
About The Author
