Corp plans fresh bins to store
The Coimbatore Corporation plans to invite fresh bids for the purchase of bins to store segregated garbage.Each house in the city will be provided with two bins – one green and another white – free of cost. Bio-degradable waste should be stored in green bins and non-biodegradable in the white ones.Each bin will have a capacity of 10 litres and the Corporation plans to spend Rs. 1.17 crore to purchase these.The provision of free bins to the people is part of the Corporation’s Rs.96-crore Integrated Solid Waste Management Project to create a litter-free city. The Corporation said in the Council on Tuesday that its first invitation for bids was made on September 7.Two companies based in Chennai and another in New Delhi had responded with the rates at which they could supply the bins.The rates of only one Chennai company and of the New Delhi firm were found to fulfil certain criteria and therefore eligible for being forwarded to a committee for scrutiny and opening of the bids.But, the New Delhi firm’s quotation was found to be 203.98 per cent more than the estimate stated by the Corporation and the Chennai firm’s was 268.46 per cent more.
These were rejected and the Corporation asked to go in for fresh bids.Councillors told Corporation Commissioner P. Muthuveeran that bigger bins were needed.He said this could be negotiated with the firms offering to supply these.The waste management scheme is to be implemented by the Corporation under the Union Government’s infrastructure development programme, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.A resolution the Corporation placed in the Council said that the civic body needed quick clearance of the elected body as it all processes under the scheme should be completed within a stipulated time.
The civic body also said at the meeting that it had negotiated with a truck manufacturing company the cost of lorries that could transport in containers garbage removed from various parts of the city to the disposal site.Two companies had bid for the supply of the vehicles. One company’s rate was found to be 6.64 per cent more than the estimate and the other’s was 2.66 per cent.Later, one of them agreed to supply the vehicles at 0.08 per cent less than the estimate.The Corporation was of the opinion that the deal could be given to this firm and placed the proposal in the Council for its approval.
The Corporation had already expressed confidence that the city could have in nine months from now a full-fledged waste management scheme, comprising primary collection from houses/shops, secondary collection from transfer stations to the compost yard and the disposal through waste-to-manure and landfill methods.The civic body said it aimed at beginning the implementation soon.Communist Party of India (Marxist) councillor C. Padmanabhan and Communist Party of India member K. Purushothaman opposed privatisation of the secondary collection of garbage from transfer stations and its disposal at the compost yard.They wanted to know whether the Corporation would choose companies with expertise and experience in such projects.When they complained of lack of information on this part of the scheme, the Commissioner said the details of the scheme had been provided to them at many meeting.The councillors indicated that people would be mobilised against privatisation.
