The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has limited the extension of performance-based road-sweeping contracts to three months and will invite fresh bids for all 15 ward offices, setting up a new contest over how the city’s roads and public spaces are cleaned.
The decision overrides a Standing Committee resolution that approved a one-year extension for the existing contractors. Additional Municipal Commissioner Prajit Nair said the civic administration would complete the fresh tendering process during the three-month period and appoint contractors for the following year.
The PMC had introduced a three-month pilot for performance-based sweeping from August 1. The pilot, intended to maintain cleanliness on roads and public spaces, ended on October 31. The Standing Committee approved the one-year extension at its meeting on October 30, but the administration has decided not to continue that arrangement for the full year.
Under the revised approach, separate tenders will be floated for each of the PMC’s 15 ward offices. The process is expected to allow contractors to compete for the work instead of receiving a direct extension to their existing contracts. The administration has not announced the final tender schedule in the information available.
The contract dispute is also before the Bombay High Court. Former corporators have challenged the extension of the existing contracts without a fresh tender, questioning whether the PMC could continue the arrangement without inviting competitive bids.
Former Leader of the Opposition Ujjwal Keskar has separately questioned the administration’s decision to modify the Standing Committee’s resolution. He said that once the committee approves a resolution, the administration cannot change it unilaterally and that permission from the state government is required for such a modification. These claims are part of the ongoing administrative and legal dispute and have not been adjudicated in the material available.
The tendering decision follows complaints about inadequate road cleaning in several parts of Pune. Corporators had alleged that contractors were deploying fewer sanitation workers than the approved numbers, affecting the quality of cleaning. The direct extension had also raised questions about accountability and transparency in the civic contracting process.
The proposed tender conditions seek to link contractor payments more closely to worker attendance. Contractors would receive full payment when sanitation-worker attendance reaches 85 per cent. Payments would be reduced proportionately below that level, while contractors could face action if attendance falls below 70 per cent.
The PMC is also proposing to reduce the supervision fee paid to contractors from 8 per cent to 6 per cent. Each contractor would be required to appoint one supervisor for every 25 to 30 sanitation workers, maintain online attendance records and create a dedicated grievance-redressal mechanism.
The proposed scope would cover regular and deep cleaning of roads, public spaces, frequently littered chronic spots and vacant plots. Contractors would have to respond to citizen complaints within three days. Where repeated lapses justify cancellation of a contract, the administration would have to take a decision within seven days.
The immediate arrangement will remain in place for three months while the PMC conducts ward-wise tendering. The outcome of that process, along with the Bombay High Court challenge and the question of the Standing Committee’s resolution, will determine how Pune’s road-cleaning operations are managed over the following year.
