After having spent nearly Rs. 4 crore towards purchase of modern toilet complexes, Namma Toilet, the Coimbatore Corporation is now running behind the contractor who supplied them for installation.
According to sources, the civic body had purchased 21 toilets to be installed across the city – at places where floating population is high and where people do not have access to toilets.
The contract-company that supplied the toilets, installed only 12 of the 21. This had led to problems from Vadavalli to Kalapatti, where the toilets remain as if they were dumped.
Ward 16 councillor K. Kumutham said that she had been fighting since October last year to have the toilets installed but there had been no relief. Ward 36 councillor P. Raghupathy said that after much struggle, the Corporation had decided to install the toilets near the SITRA Bus Stop, but could not take up the work because the contractor had not turned up.
The sources said that there were also problems like fixing a location for the toilets because in a few places the residents of the area objected to having toilets in their neighbourhood, with the apprehension that the toilets might not get cleaned regularly and that there might be foul odour they would have to live with. The sources said that the toilets have to be installed in Urumandampalayam, Saravanampatti, at two locations in Singanallur and a few other places. The toilets come in various sizes – four, five or six units with one exclusively for the differently abled.
The sources said that the Corporation had issued notices – the latest being on Tuesday – asking the contract-company to fulfil its contractual obligations. If it did not, the civic body would be forced to think of alternative measures to have the toilets installed while initiating legal action against the company.
