ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has completed the bid evaluation process for a mega cleanliness and garbage collection project covering the entire Islamabad.

Sources said in response to CDA’s latest tender, three joint ventures (JVs) submitted their bids for the multi-billion-rupee project for the urban and rural areas. The evaluation process of technical bids has been completed and out of three JVs, two have been declared non-responsive and now only one bidder is in the race.

Sources said the joint venture of NJC, MMC, Imperial Venture and JV of Altas Pak Waste Management Company were in the race for package I and these two joint ventures plus another JV of SA enterprises, M/S Nazir Lak and Company, M/S Three Brothers Construction were in the race for package II.

The sources said that after the bid evaluation process, now one JV – NJC, MMC, NCS and Imperial Ventures - is in the race and CDA’s management decided to move forward.

Two bidders declared non-responsive and now only one is in race, says official

When asked how CDA can award contract to a lone bidder, an officer of CDA said: “As per PAPRA rules, lone bidder can be awarded bids so we are moving forward. Once period of filing grievances by non responsive bids is ended, we will go for opening financial bid.”

He said that during the last two years, several times tenders were floated only to cancel them later. “This time round, we want to award the contract,” he said.

Earlier, CDA had divided Islamabad into two parts – urban and rural. Both contracts expired in March last year. Since then, in urban areas, CDA, through its own staff plus with private workers and hired machinery, has been carrying out cleanliness work and garbage collection.

It may be mentioned that there is no system in place for rural areas where CDA carries secondary garbage collection occasionally. In the absence of any system in the rural areas, people are forced to throw trash in the open.

Whereas, in some areas, people also throw trash in nullahs, destroying the environment.

The lowest bidder will be awarded to maintain cleanliness throughout Islamabad, including door-to-door collection and shifting of garbage to Losar landfill site in Rawalpindi. Zone I, II and III are part of package I and Zone IV and Zone V fall in package II.

Sources said the CDA had directed the companies to deposit bids per tonne of trash as they will be paid on the basis of per tonne of waste collected.

The CDA will have to pay around Rs4 billion per year for both projects and the new contracts will be awarded for four years.

The CDA has around 1,100 regular sanitation workers, who will also be placed at the disposal of the contractors for cleanliness work.

Islamabad, otherwise known as a planned city, has no landfill site and the city’s trash is being shifted to Losar in Rawalpindi for the last few years.

The city managers also want to build their own landfill site there as well.

The CDA was formed in 1960, but has so far failed to provide a landfill site for the capital city. Instead of having a proper site, the civic agency has kept shifting the landfill site from one place to another.

Before moving to Losar, the CDA kept dumping garbage in the residential sector of 1-12.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2026