Ganga ministry invites bids for surface cleaning

National Mission for Clean Ganga has finally opened the bids for river surface cleaning works after long drawn consultations and industry conferences.

Even as it is fallen behind schedule to award contracts for setting up sewage treatment plants that will treat raw sewage flowing into river Ganga, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has invited bids from across the globe to award projects for cleaning up solid waste from the river's surface. NMCG is the implementing agency of National Ganga River Basin Authority, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. NMCG has finally opened the bids for river surface cleaning works after long drawn consultations and industry conferences.

As part of this leg of Ganga cleaning, contractors will have to use machinery as well as manpower to collect floating solid waste such as flowers, coconuts, plastic bottles, food packets, dead bodies of humans and animals, wood, water hyacinth that dot the country's national river. The river surface cleaning works will be divided across the five Ganga basin states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

In fact, last year, NMCG had run river surface cleaning pilots across Varanasi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Patna, Sahibganj, Mathura, Ganga Sagar and Haridwar, wherein trash skimmer boats were used.

"We want to begin the river surface cleaning by June end and thus we are speeding up the tendering process to bring the project back on schedule. A lot of time was lost in the planning stages," said Rajat

Bhargava, mission director, National Mission for Clean Ganga. Bhargava added, "Although river surface cleaning is supplementary to the main work on treating polluted water we want trash skimmers to collect 6-10 tonnes of waste per day. Around 15 companies have show interest in the pre-bid meeting."

As per NMCG's bid document, the project will be awarded for three years and the contractors will have to coordinate with local municipalities and even state governments to dispose off the solid waste collected from the river surface.

Even though sewage is the biggest contributor to pollution in Ganga, it also receives a vast amount of solid waste. Cremation on the banks of the river is an age-old practice and under the river surface cleaning works, contractors will have to take care of human and animal dead bodies too. While cleaning, if human bodies are found, the contractor will have inform the local police and follow comply with procedures.

Source: dna

Media

Taxonomy

• Water
• Solid Waste Management
• Environment
• Freshwater
• River Restoration

4 Comments

1. For work by Contractors for disposal of solid wastes collected alongside the Ganges banks, there has to be "SCIENTIFIC DISPOSAL SYSTEM for solid wastes". as otherwise , part of the solid wastes collected from ghats shall have opportunity to enter the river .The present tender objective is sacred and laudable, but, the tendering process and selection of contractor ---shall leave a lot of questions UNANSWERED. Technically, a P.S.U. CAN NOT ANNOUNCE AN ICB, HOLD PRE-BID MEETING, CIRCULATE ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RAISED WHILE CONVERTING THE BID TO NCB and work period remaining to be 6 months...And the article says that an ICB is floated to award the job work for 3 years period.....We are a country with limited resources and bid process has to select a contractor fairly with fair competition allowing fair opportunity to the entities showing interest in the tendered work. Without ensuring that Solid waste is collected and disposed off safely, without creating Interception of Storm drains and without taking strict measures to minimize entry of solid wastes into the system all along the River System, how can the tendered work objectives be met with. BOD and DO levels can come in manageable limits with removal of trash and organic solids that are clinging to the clay and silt at river bed...and there is no provision of dredging even the sections along the ghats...!Major objection to the scheme is --that since work period is ONLY 6 MONTHS, WHY SHOULD THE SPECN OF THE BOAT REQUIRED TO BE DEPLOYED BE FROZEN BY TENDERED --THERE HAS TO BE EITHER ADEQUATE TIME WITH BIDDERS TO IMPORT/ PROCURE BOATS or Tendering Authority should ask bidders to organise construction/ procurement of such boats as authorities require if the deployment id for a reasonably long period or if Authorities tend to retain the boats at written down value after specified norm of residual payment.

2. I believe that along with contracts with Ganga cleaning it is vital to engage the local communities so that they have an ownership in cleaning the river that is very sacred to them. In its absence none of the technological and industrial solutions will be effective. This is also an effective constituent of all integrated water resource management strategies.

3. OMiOM Energy has developed an automated trash removal technology that can not only extract trash from the surface but also extract submerged trash flowing underneath.
   The technology allows fishes to safely bypass the system and move ahead but will capture everything else and throw it out of the waters. The system operates 24*7*365 without any electricity
   A working prototype can be seen in Mumbai. For more details write to us on ceo@omiom.com

4. In response to Pre bid Questions, ICB was supposedly converted to NCB..so, how come it is still being said to be International Competitive bidding. Another major point is that in response to quesries, the period of contract work was maintained as six months...How come it is now mentioned as 3 years..No flexibility in technical specn.s/features of Boats to be deployed for surface cleaning was accorded...and precondition of Bidder having ownership of Boat similar to that offered to be deployed ..etc. had been kept...How come there can be multiple bids when Indian Contractors having specified boat and work experience specified are NOT MANY...