Corpn floats retenders for privatisation of conservancy works

“We have floated tenders to privatise conservancy works in the extended parts of the city (eight zones) in October. But only five firms submitted their bids and only one firm met our qualification criteria,” a Chennai Corporation official said.

Earlier the civic body had floated tenders in two packages – one comprising of Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Madhavaram and Ambattur zones at a cost of Rs 744.79 crore and the other comprising of Valasaravakkam, Alandur, Perungudi and Sholinganallur zones at a cost of Rs 801.20 crore.

The tenders were opened on December 24 after several delays due to the protest of conservancy works and tepid response. “Soon after the tenders were opened, we decided to float retenders due to poor response. We could not proceed with a lone qualified bidder. The retenders were floated on December 27 and the bids will be opened on January 11,” the official added.

The civic body earlier slated October 24 as the last date to open the bids but postponed it to November 24 due to the protests. Later, the opening further deferred to December 7 and to December 24.

If the civic body finds qualified bidders, the private firms would perform the collection and transportation of solid waste to the designated processing facility and dump sites under design, build, operate and transfer model.