Swachh Bharat: Bengaluru civic body to build 6,600 toilets over four years

BENGALURU: With the Centre asking states to levy spot fines on those urinating in public, the city civic corporation wants to build 6,595 public toilets in the next four years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet Swachh Bharat project.

At present, the city has 479 public toilets, far below what is required to cater to a population of over one crore. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike ( BBMP) has set a target of constructing 1,884 public toilets this year alone.

"Bengaluru needs those many toilets," Municipal Commissioner G Kumar Naik said. "We are pumping unds from Swachh Bharat and our own resources to build toilets under the public-private partnership model."

Peeing in public places or littering could attract penalties ranging rom `500 to `5,000, the Urban Development Ministry said and has asked chief secretaries to roll out spot fines from April 30.

The Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation expects a public toilet or every kilometre, including parks, plaza, open air theatre, swimming area, car parks and fuel stations.

The Swachh Bharat mission is ex erting pressure on urban local bodies such as the BBMP to deliver on the sanitation front. According to information BBMP has provided to the Centre, 34,071 households in the city resort to open defecation. Further, the civic body found 37,183 slum-dwell ing families without toilets.

The BBMP will construct public toilets with one seat each for 50 women and 100 men as per Swachh Bharat norms. These toilets will be free for use, Naik said.

"Private parties will be given advertisement space on the toilets. The ground rent they pay will offset making the toi lets free for public use," he said.



The maintenance of existing public toilets, however, is a matter of concern. "In the new garbage contracts, we have focussed on the maintenance of toilets," said Mujahid Pasha A, chairperson of the BBMP's standing committee on public health.

Activist Kathyayini Chamaraj, executive trustee at Civic Bangalore, hailed the PPP approach for public toilets."Advertisement space for private organisations can lead to creation of amenities for the public," she said.

BBMP Engineer-in-Chief MR Venkatesh said work on constructing toilets under the Swachh Bharat mission has begun. "We have decided which zone should get how many toilets and estimates are being prepared," he said.