30,000 loos to be built by Dec 2008
The project is estimated to cost the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority around Rs 250 crore …SANDEEP SARKAR
In an attempt to prevent defecation in public and provide hygienic toilet facilities to residents of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will construct 30,000 stateof-the art plush and modern toilets, which will be free of cost for users.
The project, which has been embarked under the Nirmal MMR Abhiyan, will cover five municipal corporations and 13 municipal councils excluding Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, where the BMC is already undertaking a similar project.
The toilets which will cost the MMRDA Rs 250 crore will be completed by the end of December 2008.
“For the first time anywhere in the country, construction of swanky toilets on this scale and magnitude has been undertaken. We are spending Rs 250 crore for this project to provide clean, hygienic community toilets and bathrooms as these are basic rights of people” Ratnakar Gaikwad the MMRDA Commissioner said.
MMRDA officials said that these toilets are different from the community toilets seen in the city as they have been designed keeping in mind today’s modern world. There will be a separate toilet for children, senior citizens, handicapped people and a special arrangement for women. These toilets will be built using the new Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) technology and will have all the essentials of today’s modern households.
Depending on the availability of land, there will be one block of 10 to 20 toilets, which includes bathrooms also. The feature of these communities toilets are their ground-plus-one structure providing even a staying facility for the caretakers of these toilets. Officials said that the construction work would begin shortly and that there has been a longstanding demand from several communities to build the same near their colonies.
According to a recentlyconducted survey, there are requirements for 9,750 seat toilets in Thane, 2,400 seats in Ulhasnagar, 4,000 in Kalyan-Dombivali, 4,000 in Mira-Bhayandar, 6,000 in Bhiwandi, 2,000 in Ambarnath and 2,200 in Nallasopara.
As per the municipal council’s demand, major construction work of the toilet blocks will soon begin in Thane. In some areas, work has already been commenced and demolition of dilapidated old toilets is on. MMRDA will provide temporary toilets to residences when the demolition work of the old toilets gets
underway.
underway.
The cost of construction of these toilets will be borne by the MMRDA on a grant basis and the funds will be allotted to the urban local bodies.
It will be the responsibility of the urban local bodies to get work done by NGOs — Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centre, Yuvak Pratisthan and Janseva Labour Co-operative Society — which have been appointed to execute the work.