Chandigarh MC reinvites bid for 5-year contract

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, July 25

Having failed to earn even a single penny from advertisements on 55 public convenience blocks for more than five years, the cash-starved Municipal Corporation (MC) has now reinvited bid for a five-year contract for interested parties.

The civic body can roughly earn about Rs3-4 crore per annum from these ads. The corporation has floated a tender and invited interest from agencies till August 6. After this, the document approval payment date will be till August 13 and the auction will be held on the same day.

“We have floated the tender and the project will begin soon,” said MC Joint Commissioner Sorabh Arora, who heads this wing.

The sites will be allotted through an e-auction on the payment licence and advertisement fee. The advertisements will only be displayed in illuminted LED backlight by the successful bidder at his own expense.

The total block area of 55 public toilets will be 11,301.45 sq ft and Rs20,94,590 will be the earnest money. This is the 2 per cent of the total of annual licence and advertisement fee for five years.

In March, no agency had shown interest in the tender as bidders did not find several conditions such as contract period for “one year plus one year” viable.

The corporation had run the project from 2003 to 2014 on a “build-operate-maintain” basis in the city. However, following a toilet scam in which irregularities were found in the maintenance of toilets and advertising, ads on toilets were stopped. The CBI had registered a case against officials of the MC and an advertising company due to which the civic body failed to earn any revenue from the ads on toilet blocks.

The MC then got its build-operate-maintain policy changed. It took a long time to modify the policy for offering space in lieu of licence and ad fee on a “as-is-where-is” basis.

Even after that, it failed to find any takers in two tenders floated recently. While the MC failed to earn any revenue from its asset, Chandigarh Smart City Limited is going to spend crores for renovation of 38 toilets. The amount could have come from ads.