Bhubaneswar: In a bid to attract more vaccine manufacturers, the state Cabinet Friday relaxed the terms of the global tender floated for procurement of Covid-19 vaccines.
Briefing media persons after the meet, Chief Secretary SC Mahapatra said, “To facilitate the participation of manufacturers of vaccines to be stored in supercool temperature, the storage condition has been revised up to (-)20°C subject to condition that the vaccines will remain stable and maintain their potency at 2°C to 8°C for at least 12 hours.”
Relaxation has been approved in the EMD, bid security and liquidated damages to attract more vaccine manufacturers within the country and abroad, he said.
As each vaccine is proprietary in nature and is not comparable to any other vaccine, the price evaluation mechanism will be made by comparison of basic quoted prices of each bidder excluding GST. All bidders will be treated independently.
The state government has announced free vaccination for the 18-44 age group. Later, following shortage in supply from Indian vaccine manufacturers, the state decided to procure vaccines from the open market through global tender by the Odisha State Medical Corporation Ltd. The corporation floated a global e-tender for procurement of 3.8 crore doses of vaccines in four phases. It expects 75 lakh doses in 30 days of the purchase order, 2.25 crore doses within 60 days, 3.75 crore doses by 90 days and 3.8 crore doses by 120 days.
The Cabinet also approved the tender for construction a portion of Rengali Left Bank Canal (7 km) at a cost of `247.13 crore. The work will be completed within 36 months.
The Cabinet has approved the proposal to waive off license fee and other government fees on liquor ‘on’ shops in view of the restrictions imposed due to Covid last year. The shops remained closed during June to December, 2020.
The Excise department has formulated a proposal to provide graded relief to liquor ‘on’ shop licensees after taking into account the profit margin earned on value of liquor lifted by each licensee.
Accordingly, 364 out of a total of 613 ‘on’ licensees have been granted partial waiver of license fee for the period.