Public toilet blocks north of Rajpath here will finally be getting a much-needed makeover with the New Delhi Municipal Council starting work this week on the long-delayed project of renovating 42 existing toilets and building 24 new ones.
To save on construction and maintenance costs as well as earn revenue, the civic body is building these public toilet utility blocks on a public-private partnership basis. The NDMC will be earning a concession fee of Rs.26.53 lakh per month from the project with an escalation of 5 per cent every year after the first year for the entire concession period of 10 years.
The renovation of the existing units would be completed in a month while new units are expected to be ready for use within six months, according to civic body officials. In addition to the public toilets blocks, 18 garbage stations would also be constructed, renovated, operated and maintained with advertisement rights in the NDMC area and thrown open to the public free of charge.
Though the civic body had approved the project in June 2008 and invited bids for 113 public toilet utilities, work could not be completed and had to be cancelled midway last September leading to floating of fresh bids for 85 public toilet units. The renovation period for the already constructed units will be one month and for units yet to be constructed six months from the commencement date. The refurbished toilet blocks will have disabled-friendly facilities besides ensuring availability of basic infrastructure needs such as electricity, proper drainage, sewage and water removal.“In return,” an NDMC official said, “the concessionaire will be given the right to collect revenue from advertisements on a specified area of the toilets.”
