Bhubaneswar: In a bid to attract more vaccine manufacturers, the state Cabinet Friday relaxed the terms of the global tender floated for procurement of Covid-19 vaccines.
Briefing media persons after the meet, Chief Secretary SC Mahapatra said, “To facilitate the participation of manufacturers of vaccines to be stored in supercool temperature, the storage condition has been revised up to (-)20°C subject to condition that the vaccines will remain stable and maintain their potency at 2°C to 8°C for at least 12 hours.”
Relaxations in terms of EMD, bid security and liquidated damage have also been brought in to attract more bidders, he said.
Similarly, if a single vaccine manufacturer wants, it can bid for a whole lot of vaccine and each bidder will be treated differently as one vaccine if different from others, Mahapatra said.
The state government has announced free vaccination for the 18-44 age group. Later, following shortage in supply from Indian vaccine manufacturers, the state decided to procure vaccines from the open market through global tender by the Odisha State Medical Corporation Ltd (OSMCL).
The corporation floated a global e-tender for procurement of 3.8 crore doses of vaccines in four phases. It expects 75 lakh doses in 30 days of the purchase order, 2.25 crore doses within 60 days, 3.75 crore doses by 90 days and 3.8 crore doses by 120 days.
The Cabinet also approved the tender for construction of a portion of Rengali Left Bank Canal (7 km) at a cost of Rs 247.13 crore. The work will be completed within 36 months.
The panel has approved the proposal to waive off license fee and other government fees on liquor ‘on’ shops in view of the restrictions imposed due to Covid last year. The shops remained closed from June to December, 2020.
The Excise department has formulated a proposal to provide graded relief to liquor ‘on’ shop licensees after taking into account the profit margin earned on value of liquor lifted by each licensee.
Accordingly, 364 out of a total of 613 ‘on’ licensees have been granted partial waiver of license fee for the period. Similarly, 87 Bhang, 65 Tan and 6 Pachwai shops have been given the waiver of licenses fee for the period.