Landfill tender dumped; B'luru stares at garbage crisis

Pedestrians cover their nose and walks near lined up garbage filled BBMP tippers on bazar street at Halasuru in Bengaluru on Wednesday 03rd October 2018. Photo by Janardhan B K

A fresh garbage crisis is looming large in the city as the Urban Development Department (UDD) has turned down the bidder chosen by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike for setting up a scientific landfill at Mittiganahalli near Hennur.

The department has also directed the civic body to initiate a fresh tender process for the project.

The move has made the BBMP predictably nervous, for it had pinned its hopes on the Mittiganahalli landfill to dump Bengaluru’s waste as the existing landfills at Bagalur and Bellahalli quarries are full to the brim.

Planning to set up a landfill at Mittiganahalli, the BBMP had floated a tender in July 2019 and finalised the bidder. However, the UDD has turned down the bidder for failing to fulfill the required conditions.

According to sources in the UDD, the bidder, as per the rules, should have had the experience of executing any project worth half the cost of the current project as a primary contractor. However, the bidder chosen and submitted by the BBMP had experience only as a sub-contractor and failed to meet the expectations.

“The bidder had previously executed projects of KRIDL as a sub-contractor and not as a primary contractor. Hence, he is technically not qualified to be the bidder for the project,” the tender evaluation committee opined.

The UDD’s move has left the BBMP in a fix as it cannot float fresh tenders for the same project for at least 45 days from the date of rejection of the file. Further, it has to give another 15 days for the tender submission for the same project.

With the entire procedure likely to take two to three months, the management of garbage disposal is likely to be hit severely in the coming days, according to sources at the BBMP.

Former mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun, under whose tenure the tenders were floated, said: “I had personally approached the government as the city is in need of another landfill and got the project approved. But with the government turning down the bidder, it will be a Herculean task for the BBMP to address the garbage disposal on a daily basis.”