Mumbai: No more tenders for vaccine procurement, BMC to wait for govt allocation

A beneficiary receives her Covid-19 vaccine shot at Mumbai Press Club. File pic

The BMC is done with floating tenders for the procurement of vaccines after unfruitful results in the previous attempts. The civic administration will now wait for the government to officially increase its share of the vaccine doses, as 75 per cent of the total production will be procured by the Centre directly, leaving very little in the open market.

A man gets a dose of Sputnik V in Hyderabad. BMC had started talks with Dr. Reddy's that has the rights to supply the Russian vaccine. File pic

Civic sources said it will now slow down their efforts to procure additional vaccines from the open market directly. The civic body had called for expression of interest from interested suppliers/traders/distributors/manufacturers to quote their prices and prove authorisation for supplying 1 crore doses of vaccine to the BMC. It received nine proposals but none had proper documentation and were thus rejected. The BMC then started talks with Dr. Reddy's, which has the rights to supply Sputnik V in the country.

The civic body also started to establish contacts with three to four other pharmaceutical companies that have struck a deal with Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) for supplying Sputnik V in India. However, the efforts will now slow down owing to the Centre's new policy.

Starting June 21, the central government will procure 75 per cent of the manufactured vaccines and distribute them to states. Only 25 per cent will stay in the open market for the private players, said civic sources. Earlier, 50 per cent of the vaccine stock was bought by the Centre, 25 per cent by the states and 25 per cent was available in the open market for the private players.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani, said, "We are hopeful that we will soon start getting more doses from the authorities as the new policy states that 75 per cent will be procured by the Government of India."

Currently, the civic body has been reeling under shortage of vaccine doses, compelling citizens to turn to private centres, mostly those aged between 18 and 44 years for whom the BMC has paused vaccination.