BMP may save Rs. 4 crore on waste management

BMP may save Rs. 4 crore on waste management

The Hindu

Annual cost of garbage clearing reduced by Rs. 1.5 crore

# Fresh contracts awarded for three years
# The contracts to come into effect from December

BANGALORE: After a delay of two years, Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's (BMP) new garbage contracts will come into force from December. Mobilisation orders for the new tenders, which were recently approved by the State Government, will be issued in a few days.

Following a directive by the State Government to negotiate with the fresh set of contractors and bring down the annual cost of cleaning, top BMP officials managed to reduce the annual cleaning cost of Rs. 85.5 crore by Rs. 1.35 crore.

This means the cost of cleaning by private garbage contractors for the next three years will now be Rs. 271 crore as against the earlier sum of Rs. 275 crore.

BMP Deputy Commissioner (Health) Manu Baligar told The Hindu on Thursday that mobilisation orders for the new contractors would be issued in the next few days.

"After several rounds of negotiations with the contractors, we have managed to bring down the cost. The contractors will be given 45 days time to mobilise men and material from the day the orders were issued. The new contracts will come into force by December second week," he said.

Although the corporators were keen on getting the new contracts finalised before the end of their tenure, BMP Council had approved fresh garbage tenders for collection and transportation of municipal solid waste and street sweeping in the city only in June this year.

Under the new contracts, citizens would see the city's main and arterial roads being cleaned with the help of machines.

Segregation of garbage at source, mechanised sweeping, night cleaning and use of compactors to compress waste for transportation without spilling on the roads were the major highlights of the new tenders.

These have been allotted in exclusive packages to eight contractors.

Although the term of existing garbage tenders ended on June 1 last year, BMP called fresh tenders only in December.

The existing contractors were asked to continue cleaning activities till further orders.

The civic body, which spends Rs. 38 crore annually on the present contracts, will spend Rs. 90 crore a year under the new contracts, which have been allotted in 32 packages.