Hyderabad: 500 public toilets to come up in west zone

Hyderabad: If all goes according to plan, Serilingampally and its surrounding areas would get 500 public toilets by the end of year. The tendering process is underway, and it would be wrapped on June 21. The new public toilets would be equipped with hand wash, toilets, mobile charging points and other amenities at different locations across the Serilingampally zone.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is roping in different agencies for construction and maintenance of public toilets. Around 500 public toilets would be constructed shortly to curb open defecation. Across the Serilingampally zone, at present there are only 35 public toilets and Patancheru has none. According to the officials, Serilingampally will get 200 public toilets, Yousufguda 100, Chandanagar 150 and Patancheru 50 toilets shortly.

"The objective of the initiative is to control open defecation in the west zone. We are also trying to make better use of available places in public areas to construct the basic amenities which benefits citizens. After a long time, we are trying to come up with a huge count of public toilets in our zone where each main area could get at least 30 toilets and overall around 500 toilets in the Serilingampally Zone to be constructed shortly," said Ravi Kiran, Serilingampally, Zonal Commissioner, GHMC.

Though there are no restrictions on the structure and models of toilets, GHMC is targeting mainly the number of public toilets. A few sketches, guidelines and terms and conditions for the construction of the public toilets will be laid down with flexibility.

Though there are different types of public toilets in the city, GHMC of Serilingampally prefers to stick to construct combined public toilets in large scale as it is highly used by citizens. In the entire GHMC area we currently have 600 toilets including she loos and loo cafes in the city. Few toilets at fuel stations and hotels are also being maintained by GHMC.