Mission privatisation: MC puts Rs 2.5 crore in private hands to clean bins in parks

“With an aim to make Chandigarh the cleanest city in the country, the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, intends to outsource the work of collection and lifting of garbage from bins in various gardens/ green belts/ neighbourhood parks including litter picking and washing of dustbins under the Jurisdiction of Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh,” it was said in the expression of interest floated.

The project will be allotted for a period of one year, which the Chandigarh civic body stated that it may further extend with a maximum period of two years, subject to “satisfaction of competent authority”. It was also said that the tenderer will be considered for extension year wise.

Chandigarh Mayor Anup Gupta while speaking to The Indian Express said, “We arrived at this because while outsourcing work, the output is good and the expenditure is also reasonable. We don’t have many employees left and they are going to retire subsequently”.

As per the details, there are about 6,199 bins from which “collection of garbage and transportation of segregated garbage to the nearest materials recovery facility (MRF) along with litter picking and washing of bins once a week” has to be done.

There are 1,469 twin bins and 1,197 single bins in the gardens and green belts where “collection and transportation of segregated garbage to the nearest MRF centre along with litter picking on daily basis and washing of bins once a week has to be done”.

Additionally, there are 2,269 twin bins and 1,264 single bins in neighbourhood parks where this needs to be done twice a week, every Monday and Thursday, along with washing of bins once a week

The detailed notice inviting tender states  “Chandigarh is a city, district and UT located in the foothills of the Shivalik range of the Himalayas and serves as the joint capital of the two neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana. It covers an area of approximately 114kms. Chandigarh is one of the few planned cities in the world to have succeeded in terms of combining monumental architecture, cultural growth and modernization. With a population of approximately 12 lakhs, the city has one of the highest per capita incomes in the country and has one of the highest Human Development Index”.

As the objective, the Chandigarh civic body stated that “the prime responsibilities of the civic body is to ensure cleanliness and sanitation in the city, illumination of street lights, maintenance of roads, parks, fire safety, public health works (water supply, storm and sewerage), etc. At present, city comprises 35 wards and 59 (1-56, 60, 61, 63) sectors, along with villages, colonies and slums.

Under the head ‘deployment and maintenance of fleet, logistics, vehicles and machinery’, it was stated that the responsibility of the agency would be “to arrange and deploy vehicles, fleet, logistics, machinery and to arrange water for cleaning of dustbins”.

“It shall be the responsibility of the successful bidder to have insurance coverage of all its vehicles at their own cost (tractor trolley, motor vehicles, other machines, etc., to be used for this project as well as their operating staff at their cost. The successful bidder will deploy minimum one driver and one helper on each vehicle for the transportation of garbage to nearest transfer station,” it was mentioned.

The agency shall ensure that every machine is covered with comprehensive insurance every year and that the next year’s insurance be done before the expiry of the earlier year’s insurance. “In case any mishap/accident occurs on the road or at site, the bidder shall also be completely responsible for the same which including registration of police complaint, lodging, follow up of the insurance claim and facing the court trials, etc., and also ensure that cleaning activities are not affected at any cost even if any of the vehicle is not operational,” it was stated.

The agency also needs to make arrangements for washing of all vehicles at least once a week and the payment of wages to the employee shall be made by it directly into their bank accounts by the seventh of every month.

Privatisation of green belts also on cards

A few months ago, the agenda of privatising green belts was also put forth in the general House. After councillors stated that resident welfare associations were maintaining them well, it was resolved that only those parks be given to private agencies which RWAs are not maintaining. Further, it was decided that one park be given on pilot basis to a private firm.

“The tender of giving a park to a private firm has still not been floated and is in the process stage. It will be floated soon,” the mayor had said.