Chandigarh: Decks are cleared for a new 60 TPD (tonnes per day) horticulture waste plant for the city, as the general house of the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, on Thursday approved a Punjab-based agency for the project based on the royalty. In this royalty model, the selected bidder will establish, operate, maintain the plant and will give the royalty to the MC at Rs 92.50 per metric tonne. As a 30 TPD horticulture plant is already existing at the site, which is currently run by the civic body authority, now the selected company for the 60 TPD horticulture waste plant will also run the 30 TPD plant along with the newly planned 60 TPD plant.“The current 30 TPD plant is small, and can process pruned material only, mainly branches. The newly planned 60 TPD plant will take and process every kind of horticulture waste like leaves, big trunks of the trees. The project will be initially for the seven-year period, which will be extendable for three more years based on the performance of the company,” said a senior official. A detailed agenda item presented before the members of the general house on Thursday reads, “The project is on the royalty basis (paid by agency to MC). The successful selected bidder shall have to establish, operate and maintain Horticulture Waste Processing Plant of 60 TPD capacity for scientific processing of horticulture waste in addition to operation and maintenance of existing 30 TPD horticulture waste. The plant must be established within four months from Letter of Allotment (LoA) and trial run of the plant shall be of one month. The royalty payable to MC shall be calculated monthly from the LoA of project to the entire satisfaction.”The agenda further says, “The successful bidder will arrange the electrical and electricity connection, water connection, sewer connection, consent to establish and consent to operate from the concerned departments and all relevant clearances, approval all its own cost. While the royalty to be quoted of actual horticulture waste received in both the plants and an escalation of @5% per annum on previous year’s royalty shall be applicable on the yearly basis. The contract period will be seven years from the date of issue of Letter of Award and thereafter, extendable on yearly basis for further three years subject to satisfactory performance of the contractor and requirement of MC.”A tedious exerciseThe MC had to pass through a tedious exercise to select the agency for this project. As per the official record, in the first two tender exercises, only single agency participated, which did not fulfil the eligible criteria. In the third instance, three agencies participated, however only single bid was technically qualified, which was not considered. In fourth instance, two agencies participated, and only one agency was technically finalised to open the financial bid. After negotiations, the said agency agreed to pay the royalty from Rs 10 to Rs 92.50 per metric tonne to the MC, subject to the conditions of RFP. MSID:: 130681684 413 |
