Mumbai: BMC to construct 14,166 community toilets at 559 slum locations

Mumbai: The BMC has invited a tender to construct 14,166 community toilet seats in slum areas at 559 locations. The project has been delayed due to lack of space in the city. However, as per survey report of last year, in 2020 there was only one public toilet seat for every 752 men, and 1,820 women in Mumbai.

According to the Swachh Bharat Mission norms, the slum pockets should have one toilet seat for 35 males and 25 females. So the BMC has plans to build more toilets to match the user and toilet ratio. The civic authority has announced to construct 14,166 toilet seats (referred as lot 12) in 2023-24 under the slum sanitation programme.

Toilet seats after 'several demands'

"Several demands for more toilet facilities comes from slum areas. Since there is lack of space it gets difficult to construct new toilets. After conducting survey for three months we have finally located 559 spots. The construction of new toilets is expected to start from next month and it will take a year to complete the project," said a senior civic official. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs. 394 crores.

45% of work complete

Ravi Raja, former Opposition leader of BMC and senior Congress leader said, "Under lot 11, in 2019, the BMC undertook construction of 22,000 toilet seats. Till now only 45 % of work has been completed and the work at some places is of inferior quality." However, the civic official said that the work delayed due to space crunch.

As per the survey conducted by non-profit Praja Foundation, "India launched Swachh Bharat Mission in 2014 and on October 2, 2019, the country declared it was Open Defecation Free. However, in 2020 there was only one public toilet seat for every 752 men, and 1,820 women in Mumbai, while the mission recommends one toilet for every 100 to 400 men, and 100 to 200 women.”