BJP asks the Governor to probe the Bengaluru solid-waste tender awarded for 30 years

The BJP in Karnataka asked Governor Thawarchand Gehlot on June 10, 2026 to direct an independent inquiry into the tender for the integrated solid waste management project within Greater Bengaluru Authority limits. Leader of Opposition R Ashoka addressed a news conference before filing the petition, which also asks the Governor to examine the legality of the relaxation of tender conditions and to ensure that no final award is granted until the allegations are investigated.

Ashoka's case, as he put it, is that the north and south packages were awarded to a single company for a 30-year term. The Finance Department had advised shortening the award to 10 years and had flagged flaws in the tender documents. He further alleged that the company to which the work was awarded was blacklisted.

• Project: integrated solid waste management, Greater Bengaluru Authority limits.
• Packages challenged: north and south.
• Contract term as awarded: 30 years.
• Finance Department advice: reduce to 10 years.
• Allegation: the successful bidder is a blacklisted company.
• Tipping fee: ₹1,398 a tonne in the approved project report, later revised to ₹2,151, then approved at ₹2,565 for the north package and ₹2,151 for the south.
• Process: no bidders in the first call, three declared technically disqualified in the second, the same bidders qualified in the third.

Why the tipping fee is the crux

The specific discrepancy Ashoka identified was in the tipping fees fixed per tonne. Tipping fees cover primary and secondary collection, transportation, processing and disposal — in short, what the city pays a contractor to take responsibility for a tonne of rubbish. The approved detailed project report put the initial estimate at around ₹1,398 per tonne. The petition says consultants later recommended ₹2,151, and that Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Limited subsequently approved ₹2,565 per tonne for the north package and ₹2,151 for the south — increases of roughly 83% and 53% on the original estimate. Where the fee actually lands, and how it moves over a 30-year term, is what determines whether the city's costs are fixed or open-ended.

The process leading to those numbers is the second line of attack. The petition says the first tender call drew no bidders at all, three bidders were declared technically disqualified in the second call, and the same bidders were then declared technically qualified in the third. It names Delhi MSW Solutions, a subsidiary of the Ramky Group, as the bidder that emerged as L-1, and notes that Ramky has previously been under fire over its management of the Mavallipura landfill project.

Separate reporting earlier in the week had already put roughly ₹394.37 crore of Bengaluru waste management tenders and contracts under review. That is a review of existing awards rather than of this tender specifically, but it establishes that the question of how the city's solid waste contracts are priced was already open before the petition was filed.