In response to its international global tender for procurement of one crore vaccine doses, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has so far received eight bids— comprising one bid for Pfizer/Astra Zeneca and the remaining 7 bids for Sputnik.
In a statement issued to the media, Mumbai Municipal Commissioner I S Chahal said that the deadline for receiving the bids and documents in support of them had been extended by one week i.e., till June 1.
“In response to our Global Expression of Interest for procurement of 1 crore vaccine doses, I wish to inform you that 8 bids have been received till date. One bid is for Pfizer/AstraZeneca and the remaining 7 bids are for Sputnik,” Chahal said in a statement issued here on Tuesday evening.
“The timeline has been extended by one week to enable the various bidders to submit a complete set of documents in support of the bids as prescribed under the BMC’s Global Expression of Interest. We will also entertain any additional bid during the period,” he said.
Till May 18, the BMC received bids from five suppliers. After the deadline was extended by one more week, the BMC received another three bids. However, a few bidders did not submit the supporting documents with their bid—an inadequacy prompted the BMC to extend the deadline by one more to a week to submit all the necessary documents and also facilitate other suppliers to submit their bid. It may be recalled that on May 12, the BMC had floated a global tender to purchase 1 crore vaccines to meet the shortage of vaccines faced by it.
Significantly enough, the BMC had floated a global tender for procuring vaccines on a day when the state government suspended the ongoing third phase vaccination for people in the 18-44 years age group and diverted the available vaccine stocks to administer a second dose to the citizens aged above 45 years.