HYDERABAD: Under the ‘Swachh Telangana’ initiative, 8,000 public toilets will be functional at 128 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), municipalities and municipal corporations, including Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), by August 15. Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) Minister KT Rama Rao has mobilized the municipal corporations in the State to ensure that the work gets completed within the stipulated time.
As of now, 7,683 toilets are ready at the ULBs, municipalities and municipal corporations to meet the needs of the urban population of over 70 lakh people. As many as 4,000 toilets were built in the past two months. In addition to this, GHMC, as per Rama Rao’s instructions, has taken up a project to construct 7,200 public toilets in the 625 km² area of Greater Hyderabad. “Earlier the proposal was to construct 4,000-odd toilets in the city. Later, Rama Rao instructed the corporation to add 3,000 toilets,” a GHMC press release stated. Each of GHMC’s six zones will have 1,200 public toilets.
The corporation’s target was to build 3,000 toilets by August 15. It has built 1,536 toilets so far, and the works for 4,271 toilets are ongoing. GHMC will soon start work on the remaining 1,393 toilets. Toilets have been set up on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. The work is being carried out on a public-private partnership model.