Short-term tenders floated by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) are in limbo as the e-procurement portal is down due to maintenance.
According to highly-placed sources in the civic body, the portal has been under maintenance for the last three days. Citizens will bear the immediate repercussions as a short-term tender floated by the BBMP to take up urgent dumping work at Mittaganahalli, which was scheduled to be opened on August 7, is now stuck.
With the Bellahalli quarry, which is receiving mixed waste from Bengaluru, bursting at the seams, the problem with the e-procurement portal will have a ripple effect across the city. It it is not resolved immediately, it’s likely that garbage will not be collected properly and will be dumped on the roadside.
“Mixed waste from the city can be sent to the Bellahalli quarry only till the end of August. We were counting on the short-term tender to begin dumping at Mittaganahalli. However, with the portal now under maintenance, the tender can be opened only on August 14,” said sources.
Other departments also affected
They added that the last date for the tender was initially July 31. However, the date was extended to August 7 following requests made during the pre-bid meeting.
“Apart from the short-term tender, even tenders for awarding contracts for the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme for all eight zones are stuck.
“The technical bids were opened and approved. The financial bids were to be opened. We cannot proceed now with the portal under maintenance,” said sources in the civic body.
Many alleged that the portal was taken up for maintenance under the directions of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa. Highly-placed sources said that the BBMP has received directions to not proceed with the garbage tenders as well.
Meanwhile, the problem with the portal has been reported to CERT-In, the Centre’s agency that deals with e-security issues. After the system has been secured as per CERT-In recommendations, the e-Proc application would be restored, according to Chief Executive Officer of the e-Governance Centre.