Contractors quote less to collect wet waste from houses

In a pleasant surprise to the BBMP, garbage contractors have quoted 10% lower than the base price in the tender for the collection of wet waste from households.

The civic body had invited tenders for the door-to-door collection of wet waste in 165 of its wards, for which it received 561 applications. A technical evaluation revealed that bidders quoted 10% below the estimated cost for more than 100 wards.

A BBMP official called the response a positive development but cautioned that bidders had quoted 60% more than the estimated cost for about 50 wards. The civic body has decided to collect dry and wet waste separately. The dry waste will be collected by BBMP-appointed ragpickers while the wet waste will be collected by auto tippers.

The BBMP will fix the tender amount according to the number of auto tippers as per the ward micro-plan (one auto tipper for 750 houses), the compactors to be used by the contractors and 3% of the maintenance fee.

Explaining how the tender amount will be finalised, an official from the BBMP’s Solid Waste Management (SWM) Department said: “A ward having 50,000 households will get 67 auto tippers as per the ward micro-plan. Contractors will be paid Rs 57,000 for each auto tipper.”

He continued: “We will pay the contractor Rs 1.70 lakh for each compactor. If the contractor quotes 67 auto tippers and 10 compactors, then the tender will amount to Rs 55 lakh a month. Based on that, we’ll pay a 3% maintenance fee. What has happened now is that they have quoted 10% lower than the amount for average usage of these factors. This will save us the said percentage of
money.” Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner, SWM, BBMP, told DH: “This is a very positive development and we’ll finalise the contract soon.”

The work order will be issued soon. Also, tenders for the remaining 33 wards will be called, he added.

Meanwhile, members of the BBMP council opposed the decision to call separate tenders for the collection of wet waste. The mayor said a final decision would be taken up after a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara.