Sources pointed out that a tender was floated in May this year to appoint a firm to monitor these stations but only one bidder came forward. Thus the bid was automatically disqualified since according to government rules, at least two bids have to be made for a competitive selection. Now, tenders will again be called by the board in the coming days with a deadline of late August. After the board gets the bids, there is a lengthy evaluation process which takes around two to three months as a technical scrutiny will be done followed by a financial review. Then the bid will be cleared by a high-powered committee and finally approved by the chief minister’s office.”The process took some time. A single bid is not enough under the rules. So, we have floated a tender. The process is on and we are holding a pre-bid meeting in which conditions will be discussed and thereafter the matter will be approved by the high-powered committee,” said Dagar.It is learnt that under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and the state-specific pollution control action plans, the government has to track, report and demonstrate year-on-year improvements in air quality.If the board is unable to finalise the tender process in the coming months, it will hit the collection of real-time AQI data in the peak smog season.
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