How Mysuru roped in a private firm under Swachh Bharat Mission

BENGALURU: Mysuru fell to the fifth position in nationwide ranking of cities under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in 2017, after winning the ‘cleanest city’ award for the first two years. This happened because the city fell short of 400 individual household toilets and four community toilets as per SBM guidelines. But in the past one year, the city has made attempts to regain the top position.

Constrained by a paucity of funds, the city opted for the public-private partnership model to construct 400 toilets.

G Jagadeesha, commissioner of Mysuru City Corporation said that it was impossible for the city corporation to construct toilets using Swachh Sarvekshan funds that it received from state and central governments.


“The amount we got from the government was meagre and the municipal body did not have enough funds for toilet construction work. So, we decided to bring in private companies and that is how JK Tyre & Industries came into the picture. We constructed 200 toilets with the help of the company in the last one year,” he said.

Construction of each household toilet costs about Rs 20,000. The corporation contributed Rs 10,000 through government funds, while the private partner spent Rs 6,500. The remaining amount was contributed by the beneficiaries.

Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board too extended financial help to construct another 120 toilets.