In a lately floated tender by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the city has issued a worldwide Expression of Interest (EoI) in order to procure one crore doses of vaccines that are required for the population of Mumbai. The EoI rolled out, on the other hand, has added a clause that bars nations sharing land borders with India. This indicates that BMC will not be thinking about any organization or vaccine that comes from China.
According to a report by The IE, P Velrasu, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) mentioned that the BMC is not conscious of the existing policy issued by the Central government and they have banned Chinese firms from participating in EoI, as pointed out in the tender. The choice was taken as BMC is concerned about the good quality and other elements of Chinese vaccines and is not prepared to accept the approval offered by the WHO.
Apart from this, the municipality mentioned that all the interested corporations will require to give a response by May 18. And the corporations that are finalised will require to make the vaccine delivery inside 3 weeks of the problem of work order, states the Expression of Interest (EoI). Velrasu mentioned that the finalised organization will require to meet all compliance in India which includes import facilitation as nicely as obtaining important registration. The organization has also been asked to quote prices based on one dose and provide vaccine trial reports. BMC noted the estimated procurement price to be about Rs 400 crore.
The municipal commissioner mentioned that the city has a vaccine requirement of 1.5 crore in order to inoculate all these above the age of 18 years. The city is attempting to obtain adequate quantities of Coronavirus vaccines to vaccinate all eligible citizens and this desires to be accomplished in the next 60-90 days.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government had permitted BMC to make its personal arrangements for vaccines. The municipality is expecting bids from SII, Bharat Biotech, Sputnik, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Moderna.