The CDA has completed technical scrutiny for Islamabad’s garbage collection project, with only one joint venture left in the race. The contract covers both urban and rural areas and is expected to cost around Rs4 billion a year.
ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority has completed technical evaluation for a large-scale garbage collection and cleanliness project covering Islamabad’s urban and rural areas, leaving a single joint venture in contention for the contract.
Three joint ventures submitted bids in response to the CDA’s latest tender for the multi-billion-rupee project. After scrutiny of the technical bids, two of the bidders were declared non-responsive, while one joint venture — NJC, MMC, NCS and Imperial Ventures — remained in the running.
The joint venture of NJC, MMC and Imperial Venture, along with the joint venture of Altas Pak Waste Management Company, had competed for package I. Those two bidders, in addition to a third joint venture comprising SA Enterprises, M/S Nazir Lak and Company, and M/S Three Brothers Construction, were also in the race for package II.
A CDA officer said the authority intended to proceed with the process despite only one bidder remaining. The officer said a lone bidder could be awarded the contract under PAPRA rules and added that the financial bid would be opened after the period for filing grievances by the non-responsive bidders ended.
The same officer said CDA had floated tenders several times over the past two years but cancelled them later, and added that the authority now wanted to finalise the contract this time.
Project scope and payment model
The civic agency had earlier split Islamabad into two areas for the project: urban and rural. Zone I, Zone II and Zone III fall under package I, while Zone IV and Zone V are included in package II.
The selected contractor will be responsible for maintaining cleanliness across Islamabad, including door-to-door waste collection and transportation of garbage to the Losar landfill site in Rawalpindi. Bidders were asked to submit rates on a per-tonne basis and payments would be made according to the quantity of waste collected.
The CDA is expected to pay around Rs4 billion annually for the two contracts, which are to be awarded for four years. The authority also has about 1,100 regular sanitation workers, who will be placed at the disposal of the contractors for cleanliness operations.
Existing arrangements and rural gap
The previous contracts for the urban and rural areas expired in March last year. Since then, the CDA has been handling cleanliness and garbage collection in urban areas through its own staff, private workers and hired machinery.
In rural areas, however, no regular system is in place and the CDA only carries out secondary garbage collection from time to time. In the absence of a proper arrangement, residents are forced to dump waste in open areas, while in some localities trash is also thrown into nullahs.
Landfill issue
Islamabad still does not have its own landfill site, and for the past few years the city’s waste has been transported to Losar in Rawalpindi. City managers also want to establish Islamabad’s own landfill site there.
Although the CDA was established in 1960, it has yet to provide a landfill site for the federal capital. Before shifting waste to Losar, the authority had been dumping garbage in the residential sector of I-12.
