The beginning of the work on upgrading of the beleaguered solid waste processing plant is set to get delayed further.

The officials of the municipal corporation (MC) had earlier maintained, and in the General House meeting as well, that the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar, would submit a detailed project report (DPR) and the request for proposal (RFP) on the project by September. But now the officials concede that the report is expected to be submitted at the earliest in mid-October or by October-end.

The DPR and RFP are to be tabled before the MC General House, which, as per MC’s earlier plan, was to be done in the September meeting. Now, this is likely to be moved to the October-end House meet. The process of floating the tender and inviting firms for the project is likely to take another month after October, that is if the House approves the DPR and the RFP.

The MC General House had on July 29 decided to allot the contract for preparation of the twin documents to IIT Ropar. The institute had sought three months for the preparation of DPR and RFP.

Code of conduct for MC polls to push process further

“After MC approves the DPR and RFP, one month will go into floating the tender and the work allotment will take another three months at least. So, the entire process will take four months. But with the code of conduct for the MC elections scheduled to come into force in November, the entire tendering process will be pushed well into the next year,” said a senior MC official.

In June last year, the civic body had taken over the solid waste processing plant from Jaypee Group due to its inability to process waste in entirety. But since then, the MC has neither improved the plant’s working nor upgraded the technology, and most of the daily waste is still being dumped at the Dadumajra landfill.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is still hoping that the revamp project of the plant could be cited as one of its major achievements in the last five years for the MC elections due in December.

President of the Dumping Ground Joint Action Committee, Dyal Krishan, said, “It is now one year and three months since the MC took over the plant. But the civic body is yet to start the much-hyped upgrade process. In the meantime, the unprocessed garbage continues to be dumped here and the waste mountain is getting higher. Even if we assume that in another five-six months the MC allots the work, it will take another year for the plant to work at its full capacity. Till then residents of Dadumajra will continue to suffer.”

Still hopeful of getting an early preparation of DPR and RFP, mayor Ravi Kant Sharma said, “I have asked the officials to speed up the process so that we can table the documents before the MC General House.”