Gurugram waste bids trigger Haryana probe

Large differences in bids for the same waste-management work in Gurugram, Faridabad and Hisar have prompted scrutiny of municipal tendering in Haryana.

The issue was raised at a meeting chaired by Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, with the government flagging prima facie concerns of cartelisation, collusive bidding and bid rigging.

The Chief Minister directed officials to blacklist two agencies and lodge an FIR against them.

Documents accessed by the Times of India show that M/s Daya Charan and Company quoted Rs 777 per metric tonne in Faridabad and Rs 960 per metric tonne in Gurugram. The difference was Rs 183 per tonne, or about 24 per cent.

Swastik Carriers quoted Rs 1,372 per tonne in Faridabad compared with Rs 386 per tonne in the Hisar cluster. The Faridabad bid was Rs 986 higher, or more than 3.5 times the Hisar rate.

The request for proposal for processing fresh municipal solid waste is uniform across Haryana’s urban local bodies.

Officials said Gurugram’s status as a tier-1 city compared with the tier-2 classification of Faridabad and Hisar did not by itself explain the differences.

“The comparison is between tier 1 and tier 2 cities, but the basic costs of machinery and manpower for waste processing are broadly similar. A difference of Rs 100 per tonne may be understandable, but a gap of nearly Rs 1,000 cannot be dismissed as a routine variation. Waste characteristics are also broadly similar,” an MCG official said.

The official added that the same landfill had been used by Gurugram and Faridabad until a few months ago.

At Hisar, Swastik Carriers was the lowest bidder at Rs 386 per tonne, while two other bidders quoted Rs 432 and Rs 440.

A second MCG official said: “Distance, waste composition and disposal obligations can affect costs. But when the same bidders quote dramatically different rates under the same tender framework, the differences demand a transparent explanation. Tier 1 and tier 2 classification cannot be used to justify an otherwise unexplained pricing gap.”

The companies involved attributed the differences to operating conditions, site conditions, waste characteristics and disposal distances.

A representative of Daya Charan and Company said: “The RFP may be the same, but the working conditions, processing sites, quality of waste and scope of work differ from one city to another. These factors affect the rates quoted.”

A representative of Swastik Carriers said the disposal site for bio-soil in Hisar was within 3 to 4 km, compared with around 30 km at Bandhwari.

The wide differences have now moved beyond a pricing issue, with the Haryana government ordering blacklisting and an FIR over the concerns raised about the tender process.