SINGAPORE — A tender to manage the cleaning of all pedestrian walkways and non-pedestrian areas on expressways under one company has been called by the Government, as part of efforts to set higher service standards for contractors and meet higher public cleanliness standards.

The tender was called two weeks ago by the Department of Public Cleanliness (DPC), which is part of the National Environment Agency (NEA). The DPC was formed last year to monitor standards in cleanliness, service delivery and productivity in the cleaning industry.

In response to TODAY’s queries, an NEA spokesperson said: “This will be a six-year contract, which will see the integration of the cleaning of both expressways and expressway drains. The cleaning frequencies for this new contract will be set to at least, or higher than, the current stipulated cleaning frequencies.”

Under the first-ever integrated contract, the contracted company will take over the cleaning, desilting and flushing of drains along expressways from national water agency PUB. Expressway drains will be cleaned once a week, while desilting and flushing will still be conducted every six months.

Currently, expressway drains are managed by PUB-appointed Supersonic Maintenance Services. According to the agency, cleaning frequencies for the drains vary from once a month for services such as litter-picking, while desilting and flushing is done every six months. The frequency is increased in densely-planted areas with heavy leaf-falls.

Plans for such a contract were announced by Second Minister for Environment and Water Resources Grace Fu during this year’s Committee of Supply Debate. Ms Fu also said the DPC had already taken over the cleaning of areas like footpaths and roads from the Land Transport Authority, JTC and the Housing and Development Board.

The tender also specified 16 high-risk flood locations, such as the Upper Seletar Flyover and Ayer Rajah Expressway/Central Expressway connection, which should be desilted and flushed every month to mitigate floods.

The cleaning frequencies remain the same for expressways and pedestrian walkways. The NEA spokesperson said: “There would be productivity gains from coordinating the cleaning schedules, and having common audit teams to check on all aspects of cleaning in an area, instead of having them cleaned and checked at different times.”

The tender also called for productivity initiatives. Under the Enhanced Clean Mark Accreditation Scheme introduced by the NEA last year, the contractor will have to appoint a full-time supervisor as a productivity manager and put in place a productivity monitoring system for “continual improvement in work productivity and service standard”.

The DPC will also be taking over the cleaning of carparks from the Urban Redevelopment Authority this year, while integrated cleaning contracts for public areas, such as roads, footpaths, vacant lands and parks within a defined area will be awarded from next year.