HYDERABAD: If all goes well, Hyderabad will have 10,000 public toilets by January 2021. While 6,000 of these are ready, 2,000 are under construction. The remaining 2,000 odd toilets are already in use.
Speaking to Express, sources in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said that 6,000 pre-fabricated public toilets were installed in the city recently. A majority of them are not operational. The civic body has decided to call for tenders for their operation and maintenance on an annual basis. For maintenance, `25 crore will spent annually.
The GHMC has divided these toilets into clusters, and will appoint agencies based on their location. Each cluster will comprise 10 toilets.
Of the 6,000 new public toilets, around 1,000 have been installed in LB Nagar zone, 1,000 in Kuktapally zone, 1,034 in Charminar zone, 1,000 in Serilingampally zone, 905 in Khairatabad zone and 1,032 in Secunderabad zone.
The 2,000 existing toilets, which were installed on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis by charging citizens for using the facility, are currently under the GHMC’s maintenance. Tenders for their operation and maintenance are also being invited.
Another 2,000 new public toilets have been proposed, tenders for which have been floated. They will be ready by next month, officials said.
It may be mentioned that a few months ago, MAUD Minister KT Rama Rao had instructed GHMC authorities to construct 3,000 public toilets, i.e. 500 each in every GHMC zone, before August 15. Now, the civic body has doubled the number of public toilets, with over 1,000 toilets in each zone, to offer better facilities to Hyderabadis.