480 public toilets to be installed at 80 locations in Delhi

Under Swachh Bharat Mission, 480 public toilets will be installed at 80 different locations in Delhi in the next three months. A decision to this effect was taken last evening at a meeting by Urban Development Secretary Madhusudan Prasad. Various models of public toilets, including the hugely popular ‘Namma’ model being implemented in Tamil Nadu and the ones evolved by Delhi Urban Arts Commission were discussed in detail in the meeting, a senior UD Ministry official said.

The four urban local bodies of Delhi will identify 20 locations each for installing public toilet complexes with 6 seats each. This comes to a total of 480 toilet seats at 80 locations. Both the ‘Namma’ and DUAC models will be used for building them. The Namma model, made of composite materials, was evolved on the suggestion of former President A P J Adbul Kalam when he was the Principal Scientific Advisor to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998.

The ‘Namma’ toilets were also appreciated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the exhibition during the launch of three new urban missions last month. National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) will support part of the expenditure under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). DUSIP will prepare an Action Plan for installing about 1,000 community toilet seats in slum areas. For building community toilet seats, 40 per cent Viability Gap Funding will be extended. This support will not be available for building public toilet seats for the use of which nominal user charges will be recovered.

Besides this, 100 per cent Solid Waste Management is also to be ensured. This is estimated to cost Rs 350 cr. Stressing the need for speedy action under Swachh Bharat Mission, Prasad also expressed concern on negative perceptions over its tardy progress in Delhi. The meeting was attended by the Chief Executives of NDMC, the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Project (DUSIP), Special Secretary, Delhi Government, Chairman of Delhi Urban Arts Commission and other senior officials.

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