CDA Opens Rs. 16 Billion Bids to Outsource Islamabad’s Waste Management

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has opened financial bids for its Rs. 16 billion project to outsource garbage collection and cleanliness services across Islamabad, bringing the long-delayed initiative closer to implementation.

According to officials, a joint venture led by Atlas Pak Waste Management Company, a Turkish firm, emerged as the lowest bidder for both the urban and rural service packages. The only competing bid came from a joint venture comprising NJC, MMC, and Imperial Venture.

The four-year contract covers garbage collection, transportation of waste to the Losar landfill site in Rawalpindi, and sanitation services across the federal capital. Officials said the Turkish firm’s combined bid was around Rs. 380 million lower than its competitor’s and will now be sent to the project consultant before the contract is formally awarded.

The bidding process had earlier been mired in controversy after Atlas Pak, despite securing the highest score in the technical evaluation, was declared non-responsive over a missing document. The company argued that the document had already been submitted with its financial bid on the same day.

According to sources, CDA Chairman Sohail Ashraf sought an explanation for the decision, questioning how the company could be disqualified when the required document was already in the authority’s possession. Following a complaint by the company, the Grievance Redressal Committee declared the bid responsive, allowing it to participate in the financial opening.

Officials said that if the Turkish company had remained disqualified, the CDA would have ended up awarding the contract at a cost Rs. 380 million higher than the lowest available bid.

The outsourcing project has faced repeated delays, with tenders being floated and cancelled multiple times over the past two years. The previous sanitation contract expired in February 2025, leaving the CDA to rely largely on its own resources for waste management.

Currently, there is no formal waste collection system in Islamabad’s rural areas, forcing many residents to dump garbage in open spaces and drainage channels. The CDA’s 1,100 sanitation workers are expected to work alongside the private contractor once the new agreement takes effect.

Despite being established in 1960, the CDA has yet to develop a permanent landfill site for Islamabad. The city’s waste has been transported to Losar in Rawalpindi for the past several years after earlier dumping sites, including one in Sector I-12, were abandoned.