Chandigarh, April 8 -- The Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) will hold its monthly general house meeting on Wednesday to deliberate on several key issues, including extending a sanitation contract for the city's Southern sectors. Even as the MC has floated fresh tenders inviting private players to manage GIS-based mechanised and manual sweeping operations in the southern sectors, officials are now planning to extend the contract of the existing agency for the fifth time. The proposal is likely to spark debate, as the repeated extensions have drawn criticism in previous meetings for delaying the rollout of a more efficient contract. In the agenda, MC officials said, "In the recent after technical evaluation of the tender, only two firms-M/s Lion Services Ltd. (the existing firm) and M/s Water Grace Products were found responsive. M/s Lion Services Ltd. initially quoted the lowest rate. The MC, however, noted that although the final rate of Rs.5.93 crore per month as compared to the analysis of rate (AoR) Rs.4.39 crore is still on the higher side (lowest price is more than 35.01% from estimated rate), and hence, tender should not be considered." MC is now planning to undertake the work of GIS-based mechanised and manual sweeping of the Southern Sectors of Chandigarh on its own,by hiring the required machinery and manpower through outsourcing to carry out sweeping operations in the project area; 'Or' Split the project area geographically, into two parts and allow floating the two tenders for the split project area on GeM portal....