In a significant setback to Gurgaon's waste management plans, the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has been forced to restart the process of hiring a firm to treat the city's daily garbage. This comes after a recently floated tender received zero applications from sanitation agencies.
Tender Withdrawn Due to Lack of Interest
The civic body informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that it had issued the tender on December 15, 2025, aiming to reduce the mounting pressure on the overburdened Bandhwari landfill site. However, officials later confirmed that no company came forward to bid for the contract. "We withdrew the tender as there were no applicants. It was first floated on Dec 15, 2025," stated MCG executive engineer Sunder Sheoran.
The failed tender was valued at Rs 27 crore and was meant for a three-year contract period. This budget was a scaled-down version of MCG's original proposal. In December, the corporation revealed it had sent a Rs 172 crore proposal to the Urban Local Bodies department in May 2025 for fresh waste processing spanning a decade. The department, however, approved only the smaller amount for a three-year term.
Ambitious Timeline and Past Controversies
According to an action plan submitted to the NGT in December 2025, MCG's strategy involved starting fresh waste processing at Bandhwari after clearing approximately five acres of land by the first week of May 2026. Gurgaon generates a staggering 1,200 to 1,500 metric tonnes of waste every day, all of which is currently dumped at the Bandhwari site.
The tender documents included strict conditions for potential bidders, likely influenced by past controversies. The selected contractor was required to have a formal agreement with industries like cement or power plants that use refuse-derived fuel (RDF). This agreement, needing approval from pollution control boards, had to be submitted before the project's launch. The contractor also had to provide valid certificates and bills to prove the proper disposal of RDF.
These stringent norms follow a previous scandal exposed by TOI on June 25, 2024. An MCG probe found that a private firm, hired to process 4 lakh tonnes of waste, allegedly submitted fraudulent documents claiming it transported RDF to cement plants in Madhya Pradesh. Two cement companies denied receiving any such material, raising serious questions about environmental compliance and oversight.
What's Next for Gurgaon's Waste Woes?
The failure of this tender leaves a critical question unanswered: who will process Gurgaon's daily waste and alleviate the crisis at the Bandhwari landfill? The site already contains a massive amount of legacy waste, and the city's continuous output adds to the problem daily.
The MCG now faces the urgent task of redesigning and re-floating the tender to attract qualified bidders. The corporation must balance financial constraints, stringent environmental mandates from the NGT, and the operational challenges that seemingly deterred companies from bidding in the first instance. The delay directly impacts the timeline for clearing legacy waste and establishing a sustainable waste processing system, putting Gurgaon's environmental health at further risk.
