Have 3 proposals for supply of Sputnik V vaccine to Mumbai: BMC

Mumbai’s civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has received proposals from three companies for supplying Russian Sputnik V Covid vaccine, said its commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal in an interview with a news channel on Wednesday.

Chahal’s comment comes a day after the civic body extended the deadline for submission of bid to supply 10 million Covid vaccines to the city. The last date for submission of the bid was May 18, but after failing to receive any, the BMC extended the deadline up to May 25.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Chahal said the BMC estimates to spend about ₹700 crore to buy the shots. “Once we get 15 million vaccine shots, I plan to vaccinate the entire city in the next 60 days and by doing so, I am very sure we will be able to stop the third wave from coming.”

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Meanwhile, the three proposals for Sputnik V vaccines have come from a UK-based firm and two companies from India having authorised distributorship of Sputnik. According to BMC officials, their paperwork was incomplete so the companies have been asked to send revised proposals as formal bids.

Additional municipal commissioner P Velrasu told HT, “We have received three proposals. All of them are for Sputnik vaccine but have come with incomplete paperwork. So we have given the extension.”

According to the BMC’s tender document, any interested supplier or manufacturer can bid for the tender. However, it has restricted China from bidding. Further, the vaccines that do not have Central government’s approval will have to get the same on their own.