Raviprasad Kamila/The Hindu

• MCC to handover the task to a single agency 
• Shortlisted companies have been asked to submit commercial bids
• Corporation is aiming at doing away with multi-agency system

Mangalore, Oct 27: The Mangalore City Corporation has shortlisted three companies for managing entire solid waste produced in its 60 wards and handling other sanitary works. However, final selection will depend on the contract rates quoted by these companies for exexcuting the job.

Sources in the corporation told The Hindu that it had shortlisted Infrastructure Lease and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), Ramky Energy and Environment Ltd and Antony Waste Handling Cell Pvt Ltd to chose from. The corporation will soon be inviting the three companies to submit financial bids. However, if the bids fail to meet the feasibility standards of the corporation, the corporation’s Commissioner will reject any or all the bids, without assigning any reason, according to sources.

At present, different contractors are handling the solid waste and sanitary works in the city. The corporation had now decided to award both the jobs to a single agency, sources said.

According to a notification of the corporation, the prospective contractor will have to collect the solid waste from houses, hotels and other establishments, transport it to the dumping yard and maintain the solid waste compost plant and sanitary landfill site at Pachanady. In addition, the company will be required to take up street sweeping, vegetation cutting, footpath and divider cleaning, drain cleaning, and sanitary works of public buildings. Sources said that these works had been entrusted to different contractors under seven packages. Only the transportation of solid waste from the city to the dumping yard had been entrusted to a single contractor. The term of all these contractors will expire by January next.

When contacted, M. Shankar Bhat, chief whip in the corporation council, said that two study teams of elected representatives of local bodies from here visited Kochi and Hyderabad recently.

They had noticed that the city corporations in those cities were getting the solid waste transported to the dumping sites during night. Mangalore City Corporation could emulate it, he said.

In Kochi, self help groups had been given the contract of collecting the solid waste from houses and establishments. “In Mangalore, according to an estimation, 170 tonnes of solid waste is produced, daily,”he said and added that it would be a challenged to handle the task here.