Mumbai: BMC junks plan to purchase vaccine directly as Centre announces free vax for all

As the Central government has announced the distribution of free Covid for all above 18 years of age group, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to junk its plan of purchasing vaccine directly from the manufacturers in the international market or domestically

As the Central government has announced the distribution of free Covid for all above 18 years of age group, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to junk its plan of purchasing vaccine directly from the manufacturers in the international market or domestically.

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According to BMC officials, considering the Central government is giving free vaccines, it will not be financially sound for the civic body to spend money and procure vaccine doses. Earlier, the BMC had floated global tenders and was also in talks with Dr Reddy’s laboratory for procurement of the Russian Sputnik vaccine.

The BMC had invited a global expression of interest (EoI) on May 12 for the procurement of 10 million Covid vaccines directly from the international market. Followed by this, it extended the application window twice on May 18 and May 25 for a week. On June 1, 2021, the BMC closed the application window stating that it had received nine proposals, of which eight were for supplying Sputnik and one company had offered to supply any approved vaccine. However, on June 4, the BMC announced cancelling the bidding process considering none of those who had shown interest submitted documents to prove their connection with the manufacturer.

Following this, BMC had said that based on its discussion with Dr Reddy’s Laboratory who is sole distribution rights for the Russian Sputnik vaccine in India, the firm has agreed to supply Sputnik vaccine on an experimental basis by the end of June 2021. But three days later on June 7, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that vaccines will be given for free to all above the age of 18 years.

Hence, the BMC has now decided to not procure vaccines directly. Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said, “The Central government has announced that vaccines will be given for free and in this case, even if we procure, there might be an audit query that why did we buy vaccines when we were going to get free vaccines from the government. Hence, we have decided to not procure vaccines from the market directly.”

Chahal added, “In a way, I think it was better we did not have to qualify anyone for the global bids that we had floated. This is because if we would have shortlisted suppliers from that tender, we would have ended up spending around ₹1,000 crore. So, in a way, I feel we have saved ₹1,000 crore. However, we will help private hospitals in the city get the Sputnik vaccine. We will aim to conduct aggressive vaccination in the city once there is appropriate availability.”

Meanwhile, on Wednesday 68,565 citizens were vaccinated in the city. Overall, in the city 4,256,312 citizens have been vaccinated since January 16, 2021.