Hand Pump Tenders and Related Business Opportunities for Bidders

Hand pumps are not new and have been in use for centuries now. Even when bore wells and tube wells did not make their appearances, people use to set up hand pumps for lifting water from the wells and tanks. However, with the advent of electric operated bore wells, use of hand pumps have reduced to some extent in urban and semi urban areas. However, in most of the rural areas and urban slums it is hand pump that is still the major tool and accessories for drinking water purposes.

Major Sources of Hand Pump Tenders
Till date government and especially the public health department and other agencies are the largest indenters of hand pumps.

• PHD Departments of central government, state government, and union territories are the largest buyers of the hand pumps and regular tenders are floated to procure not only the hand pumps but different accessories like the filter, valve, paddle, and others.
• Other sources are the Gram Panchayats, and Panchayat Samittees, municipalities and notified area councils all of whom have an agenda for providing safe drinking water to the inhabitants of the area.
• Corporate bodies and industries often use them for common use in their colonies, quarters, offices as substitute to possible power failure and paucity of water lifting.
• Areas where electric supplies has not yet reached, hand pumps are the best ways of ensuring lifting of safe drinking water from under ground for use by the inhabitants around.

Different Types of Tenders
Usually in case of the hand pump tenders local and reliable providers are preferred to outsiders and not well known providers. Bidders who have already built up  good rapport with the authorities with due diligence in discharge of their services in the past are likely to get the best response to their bids by the authorities. That does not mean the bidder can afford to compromise the quality of the articles. Rather, this is one area where quality of the items supplied will be given as much importance as the price economy. It is something related to basic human requirements; water and the question of hygiene and sanitation is also involved. Hand pumps solve a lot of problems for the rural areas so far as drinking water is concerned and it is also widely used for domestic purposes in individual households. Being a matter of common welfare and use, the indenters cannot afford to be casual in their approach to buying them and so the hand pump tenders often contain stringent terms and conditions.

Task for the Bidder
Task for the bidder is therefore cut out at offering the best in terms of –

• Quality of product supplied;
• If required by the indenting authority, it should be branded items only, and
• There should be adequate provisions for after sales services where it is for colonies and other areas.

Normally PHD and other engineering agencies will not require such after sales services but it will be required by others who are buying the hand pumps and that are what the bidder should keep in mind while bidding in response of hand pump tenders.