Mumbai: BMC extends global Expression of Interest for Covid-19 vaccines till June 1

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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday extended the deadline for accepting global Expression of Interest (EOI) for Covid-19 vaccines by another week till June 1. This is the second extension, the earlier deadline was set to end on May 25.

The civic body had received eight proposals from potential suppliers till Tuesday.

Out of the potential suppliers, seven have shown interest in supplying Sputnik. Out of these seven, six are interested in supplying Sputnik Five and one is keen to supply Sputnik Light. The remaining one proposal is for supplying the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine, whichever the BMC wants.

"In response to BMC's global Expression of Interest for procurement of 1 crore vaccine doses, I wish to inform that eight bids have been received till date. One bid is for Pfizer/Astra Zeneca and the remaining 7 bids are for Sputnik," BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said during a meeting on Tuesday.

On Monday, the municipal administration had a discussion with a potential supplier through an audio-visual system and on Tuesday more discussions were held with four more potential suppliers.

To supply Covid-19 vaccine to BMC, the state administration published an EoI globally on May 12. Till May 18, a total of 5 potential supplier proposals were received. However, the extension of this expression of interest was in order to fulfill the documents in the proposal received. Accordingly, the term was extended till May 25. On Tuesday, three more potential suppliers submitted proposals. However, they also need to submit certain documents and thus the BMC authorities have decided to give them time.

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"The time period 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 MCGM's Global Expression of Interest. Any additional bid shall also be entertained," added Chahal.

Meanwhile, the civic body will scrutinize the business relationship between those who have shown interest to supply vaccines and companies that actually produce vaccines so that smooth supply is ensured.

In addition, the municipal administration will also be looking at four criteria: within how many days the vaccine will be supplied, how much vaccine stock will be supplied along with this the terms and conditions of vaccination rates and the amount at which the vaccine will be supplied.