Gurgaon: The same waste-management job is attracting dramatically different bids in Gurgaon, Faridabad and Hisar, raising questions over how municipal tenders are being priced and competed for in Haryana.The disparity has prompted state action: the issue was raised at a meeting chaired by Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini, who took a strict view of the matter, with govt flagging prima facie concerns of cartelisation, collusive bidding and bid rigging. CM directed officials to blacklist the two agencies and lodge an FIR against them.Documents accessed by TOI show M/s Daya Charan and Company quoted Rs 777 per metric tonne (MT) in Faridabad but Rs 960 in Gurgaon — a difference of Rs 183, or about 24%. Swastik Carriers quoted Rs 1,372 per tonne in Faridabad against just Rs 386 in the Hisar cluster, making the former rate Rs 986 higher, or more than 3.5 times the latter.The request for proposal for processing fresh municipal solid waste is uniform across Haryana’s urban local bodies, and officials say Gurgaon’s tier 1 status versus Faridabad and Hisar’s tier 2 status doesn’t by itself explain such a steep disparity.“The comparison is between tier 1 and tier 2 cities, but the basic costs of machinery and manpower for waste processing are broadly similar. A difference of Rs 100 per tonne may be understandable, but a gap of nearly Rs 1,000 cannot be dismissed as a routine variation. Waste characteristics are also broadly similar. The city and Faridabad were even using the same landfill until a few months ago,” said an MCG official requesting anonymity.The official noted the scale of the contracts makes the disparity serious. “Even a difference of Rs 100 per tonne can translate into several crores over the duration of a contract, depending on the quantity of waste processed. The differences seen in these bids are far steeper and warrant strict scrutiny.”The Hisar tender further highlights the discrepancy. Swastik Carriers emerged the lowest bidder at Rs 386 per tonne, while two other bidders quoted Rs 432 and Rs 440.A second MCG official, also speaking anonymously, said: “Distance, waste composition and disposal obligations can affect costs. But when the same bidders quote dramatically different rates under the same tender framework, the differences demand a transparent explanation. Tier 1 and tier 2 classification cannot be used to justify an otherwise unexplained pricing gap.”The firms attributed the gap to differing site conditions and operating costs. A representative of Daya Charan and Company said: “The RFP may be the same, but the working conditions, processing sites, quality of waste and scope of work differ from one city to another. These factors affect the rates quoted.”A representative of Swastik Carriers pointed to disposal distances. “In Hisar, the disposal site for the bio-soil generated after processing is within three to 4km. At Bandhwari, the disposal distance is around 30km, which adds to transportation costs. Every site has different operating conditions, and this is why the rates vary.”A third contractor, however, said this doesn’t fully account for the scale of the difference. “New waste requires more manual and mechanical pre-sorting, while legacy waste involves different processing and disposal requirements. These factors can affect costs. But the difference of nearly Rs 1,000 per tonne in the rates under discussion cannot be justified merely by citing site conditions. The increase from one location to another would ordinarily be expected to be much smaller.”Swastik’s two quotes differ by Rs 986 per tonne. At 1,000 tonnes of waste processed a day, that gap works out to roughly Rs 9.86 lakh daily, or approximately Rs 36 crore over a year — though the actual impact would depend on the quantities and duration of the contracts. With chief minister ordering action, the pricing differences have moved beyond a routine procurement concern to a question of possible wrongdoing in the tendering process itself.
