Government calls tender for 35 cr disposable syringes, preference for indigenous products

The Central Medical Services Society (CMSS), a central procurement agency (CPA) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India has invited tenders for 35 crore disposable syringes of 0.5 ml with the auto-disable feature.

The tender bids need to be submitted by December 28, 2020.  And the selected bidder needs to deliver the committed product quantity within 150 days from the date of the selection announcement.

Under this procurement, the government will be giving preference to Indian-made products. For bids less than Rs 200 crores is reserved for purchase from Class 1 local suppliers defined in the Public Procurement Order 2017. The minimum local content required to qualify as a Class 1 local supplier denoted in the bid document is 50 per cent.

Besides this, under the procurement process, micro and small enterprises will be given preference whose credentials are validated online through Udyog Aadhaar for the mentioned product category.

As part of the bidding process, the authority has asked the bidders to submit the following documents:
1) Experience Criteria
2) Past Performance
3) Bidder Turnover
4) Certificate (Requested in ATC)
5) OEM Authorisation Certificate
6) OEM Annual Turnover

It has also specified that in case any bidder is seeking exemption from experience/turnover criteria, the supporting documents need to prove his eligibility for exemption. There is no exemption to start-ups in the number of years of experience and turnover.

In its tender offer, the department has specified the syringe requirements. According to the issued document, the government has called for auto-disable syringes for fixed-dose immunisation with a fixed needle with a nominal capacity of 0.5 ml, which should comply with Indian standards, i.e., IS 10654:2002 specified for the latest sterile hypodermic needles for single-use purpose. The needle tube needs to be stainless steel and as per ISO 9626 standards. Along with this, the required material of barrel and plunger should be polypropylene.

“We are glad that MoH&FW has firmed up the numbers of 0.5 ml AD Syringes to enable COVID -19 vaccination of the initial 30 crores recipients and shown a clearly marked preference for ‘Made in India’ products with over 50 per cent domestic content”, said Rajiv Nath, MD, Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices.

He continued, “Now the onus is on the domestic industry to jointly meet these challenging needs in the short delivery time specified so that the country can start going back to normalcy,”