BENGALURU: As part of its vaccine roll out plan, the Centre has initiated the process to procure an additional 351 million
pieces of syringes from more than one firm,
tender documents reviewed by TOI shows. As reported earlier the government has already placed orders for 230 million pieces and orders for another 100 million pieces are in the final stages of being placed.
The tender issued by
the central medical services society (CMSS), under the ministry of health and family welfare (MoH&FW) is for “0.5ml auto disable syringe for fixed dose immunization with fixed needle,” and the estimated cost of the bid is Rs 65.7 crore.
The additional 351 million pieces will take the total number of syringes being procured for
Covid vaccination to more than 600 million pieces, in line with the demand to vaccinate 300 million people — two doses each — in the first few phases of vaccination.
As per the tender called on December 11, the government has set short delivery targets for the procurement, which will happen in four batches of 87.8 million pieces each. The first batch is expected to be delivered 60 days after the order has been placed and the last batch within 150 days.
According to more than one industry representative, this is the first fresh tender being issued for syringes for Covid. “The earlier orders were placed as an extension of existing contracts between firms and the ministry, and the devices were being supplied at old rates,” one of them said.
Sandeep Bhandari, vice-president, Iscon Surgicals, which has already shipped out 20 million syringes out of the 52.2 million pieces it has orders for, said: “Order for another 100 million that we’ll soon be getting is also part of the old contract we have. We will be bidding for the new tender issued by the government as there is enough capacity to fulfil existing orders.”
Bhandari and other industry players had last week pointed out that raw material cost has shot up by around 40% in the past few months and had urged the government to clear invoices early, besides issuing timely dispatch instructions.
Now, as per the new tender, companies are expected to be paid within 90 days of the procurement. “With the pre-bid meetings scheduled in the next couple of days and bids expected to be opened by month-end, orders are likely to be placed by early January, which means these syringes will start landing at government depots by the end of February,” one person in the know said.