NEWS

The DHS has already issued expression of interests and invited bid for the existing BMW set-up at Okhla as the private consultant currently offering the biomedical services wants to end the partnership with the city health department.

“The current private operator (Synergy Waste Management Pvt Ltd) has clearly said that it no longer wants to carry the work. Though no fixed date has been fixed, we are receiving requests from parties for all the four biomedical facilities, two of which are yet to come. We want to encourage competition among the operators,” said Dr S Bhattacharjee, DHS, Delhi government.

Under the climate change plan 2009-2012, these units would be targeting 100 per cent quality in treating biomedical waste and for this the consultants would help in the tender issuance and bidding process. As of date, eight proposals from the interested private consultants have been received by the DHS. Within two months, the names of the consultants might be shortlisted, said Dr Bhattacharjee.

While the biomedical waste facility in Okhla, based on the model of public-private partnership, has been in operation since 2006, another facility for which previously land was allotted in Ghazipur is slated to be functional by August.

As land allotted at Ghazipur was found to be unfit, in Nilothi an alternative area was identified in November last year. The capacity of current BMW set-up at Okhla is 10 tonnes per day.

In the Capital, according to official data, about 25 tonnes of bio-medical waste is generated per day from the organised sector, which entails government hospitals, dispensaries, nursing homes, etc. However, the city records a total of nearly 50 tonnes of biomedical waste every day, both by the organised sector and small practitioners and quacks.