The sanitation scenario in Hyderabad has just been jazzed up with the ‘LooCafes’ being set up by Ixora FM, a private company in the business of establishing luxury wash-rooms.
The first LooCafe of the city was inaugurated at Hitech City on Tuesday by K.T. Rama Rao, Minister of IT, Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD).
Each air-conditioned LooCafe is equipped with ATMs, camera surveillance, free WiFi, charging points, self-cleaning systems, and user-friendly wash-rooms separately for men, women and the physically-challenged, all in 170 square feet of area which largely uses eco-friendly material.
Women run pharmacies and physically challenged staff at outlets are additional socially useful features towards creating inclusive work environment.
At least a hundred more such cafes will come up in the city, informed Abhishek Nath, founder-CEO of Ixora FM.
The project aims at achieving open-defecation-free cities by 2019, he said.
“Public wash rooms are highly unhygienic and not in a state to use, moreover there is no facility for feminine hygiene,” Mr. Nath said.
While most public wash rooms fail to maintain proper standards of hygiene due to lack of funds, LooCafe’s wash rooms are maintained and funded by the café’s revenue.
Regular maintenance of the same is undertaken by Ixora, he added.
These free of cost, air conditioned wash rooms include facilities such as sanitary pad dispenser, hygiene bins and disposable seat covers to cater to feminine hygiene. They also plan on catering to the physically challenged with an automated elevating platform for easy access to wash-rooms.
The LooCafe has tagged Geo locations and the LooCafe locator app which helps the users to locate the nearest LooCafe. Also, the café is open 24x7 and has a tie up with Swiggy and Food Panda.
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