Mumbai: The BMC has failed to attract a contractor for its controversial tender for doing several sanitation works ranging from waste collection to cleaning of public toilets. Hence, the civic body has now extended the final date for submitting bids from March 7 to March 26.
The decision to appoint a contractor for slum sanitation will render 11,000 NGO workers jobless, former opposition leader in BMC, Ravi Raja, had said earlier. He had also requested Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to scrap the worrying proposal.
Despite resistance from the opposition parties, the civic body issued a tender on February 16. However, not even a single bid was received till March 7, compelling the authorities to extend the deadline, said civic sources.
Currently, door-to-door waste collection is carried out by NGO workers. However, the BMC has decided to do away with them, reasoning that their job is not up to the mark, said a civic official. The civic body has pledged to spend Rs1,200 crore on cleaning the slums in the next four years.
The contractor will be single-handedly responsible for collection of garbage, cleaning of lanes and roads as well as public toilets.
