A tender was floated in March, inviting bids from private players to take over the facility to make COVID-19 vaccines, but no response was received.
The Union government’s plan to revive the Integrated Vaccine Complex Facility (IVC) at Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu to make COVID-19 vaccines has hit a roadblock as no response was received to the tender that was issued for the purpose. This was revealed in a reply from former Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan’s office on June 30, in response to VCK MP from Villupuram, Ravikumar. As per the response from the former Health Minister’s office, a tender was floated on the Central Public Procurement Portal on March 27, 2021, inviting bids from private players to take over the Chengalpattu facility to make COVID-19 vaccines, through a competitive bidding process. This tender was published by HLL Lifecare Ltd, a Government of India enterprise of which HLL Biotech Ltd (HBL), which owns the Chengalpattu centre, as a 100% subsidiary.
However, the letter states that neither HLL nor HBL received any bids from private parties to take over the facility within April 14, 2021, the final date of submission. “…the bid submission date was extended repeatedly and finally upto May 21, 2021,” the letter said, adding that no response was received till it expired. The VCK MP from Villupuram in Tamil Nadu had written to the former Health Minister asking why the fully set-up vaccine manufacturing plant was not being used to make COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.
Speaking to TNM, Ravikumar stressed that the former Health Minister’s office was offering ‘an old story’, and that the Union government had not responded to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s request to let the state government produce vaccines at the facility. On May 26, 2021, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Modi requesting the Union Government to hand over the IVC on lease to the state government.
“I propose that the assets of IVC may be handed over to the Tamil Nadu government on lease, without any past liabilities and with full operational freedom. The state government will identify a suitable private partner immediately and will make all efforts to commence vaccine production at the earliest,” Stalin wrote in his letter. It also added that after the centre commenced operations, a financial arrangement will be worked out for the Union government to recover a part of its investment.
“To my knowledge, there has been no development on this request from the state government. Why is there a hesitation in handing over the lease to the state government, when the Union government is ready to operationalise the plant by roping in a private player?” Ravikumar asked.
The Integrated Vaccine Complex built on 100 acres of land in Tamil Nadu’s Chengalpattu district has been lying idle for nine years, despite ready-to-use state of the art facilities to make a variety of vaccines. It was built by HBL, a government of India enterprise, as part of the UPA regime’s Universal Immunisation Programme which was approved in 2012. The IVF in Tamil Nadu was built to become the nodal centre for research, production and supply of vaccines for rabies, measles, Japanese Encephalitis and Hepatitis B among other diseases.
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, the facility which has been lying idle came to the limelight. The Tamil Nadu government and various MPs have asked why the complex, which could produce six to eight crore vaccine doses per month, was not being utilised at a time when there was a vaccine shortage. The facility has so far only been used to manufacture hand sanitisers.
In June 2021, both CM Stalin and a high level team from Bharat Biotech, which makes Covaxin, visited the IVC in Chengalpattu. However, no public announcements have been made either by the Union government, the state or Bharat Biotech following these visits.
Source: The News Minute