No sign of new toilets and stench still there now. This is the real situation of the public toilets present in various locations in Chennai now.
It must be recalled that about 6 months back GCC or Greater Chennai Corporation has signed a deal to privatise the construction and working of the public toilets in the city for an amount of Rs 430 crores. Point is that the GCC handed over the contracts of Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar and Marina Beach to RSB Arch Projects in the month of February. The contractor was supposed to build new toilets and revamp the current toilets by changing taps, tiles etc.
The bitter truth is that the contractor has not done what he was supposed to do and despite this GCC has not taken any action. It is learnt that in Royapuram the public toilets were mostly muddy and unclean. In Flower Bazaar, the public toilets were stinking and unfit for use. In the public toilets in Old Jail Road the doors were broken.
The contractor was supposed to set up CCTV cameras at the toilet entrances plus appoint staff to clean the toilets everyday and provide sanitary napkins dispenser etc. The contractor has appointed just 53 staff against a total of 372 staff. Out of a total of 90 toilets that needed to be constructed, work has begun in just 22 toilets now. The toilet that was demolished by the contractor at Egmore was not constructed back even after 3 months.
As per Mr. B.V. Babu, superintending engineer for special projects of GCC, the contractor would be paid based on the performance. He added that action would be taken against the contractor for not maintaining the toilets. It was brought out by Mr Michael of RSB Infra that GCC was yet to pay the contractor.