By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Oct 28: Bidders rallying to run the 108 emergency services on Saturday gave their presentation but expressed dismay at how all the presentations were called through a notice at midnight on Thursday, with a schedule for Saturday morning.
According to some bidders, presentations with 30 marks of weightage were accorded only 10 minutes and five minutes of Q&A section for each bidder.
The duration of 10 minutes did not go too well with many of the bidders especially considering that the project is about running an operation in Meghalaya for 5 years.
Nonetheless, all seven bidders gave their presentation on Saturday.
Medulance, Kubera Transport Solutions, ZHL, Emergent Solutions were physically present, while Jai Ambe, Kriya and PDPL joined virtually.
“How can any company explain such a huge project of state importance in 10 minutes for NHM to make a decision of the bid winner,” some bidders said.
It was also pointed out that negligent is allegedly prevalent in terms of quality assessment making way for aggregators and very less experienced companies to get though.
Many bidders felt that if a good firm is not selected, there is a fear of quality lapses.
When contacted for a response to the allegations, the NHM said a clarification will be issued soon.
It is to be mentioned that the GVK, one of the biggest companies in India in the emergency services domain, abstaining a bid leaves big shoes to be filled with to the global quality standards of 108 emergency response services.
Since the launch of the service in 2008, GVK EMRI was operating the 108 ambulances in the state. Last year, the closure notice was served to GVK EMRI. With the bidding process on, the government may also expand the services to more locations in the state, as it said earlier.