Coffee, toffee or toilets? It will be all rolled into one

No stinking public toilets anymore. Delhi is set to have some toilet blocks that would smell of flowers and coffee, literally. Neelam Pandey reports.

No stinking public toilets anymore. Delhi is set to have some toilet blocks that would smell of flowers and coffee, literally.

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The Municipal Corporation of Delhi plans to redevelop its toilet complexes in the city into swanky toilet-cum-coffee complexes. They will also have flower shops, apart from the urinals and WC facilities.

Not only will this mean some good money for the cash-strapped civic agency, it will also be a big relief for Delhiiites.
The civic agency’s plan is to construct 1,000 such complexes in market places like South Extension, East of Kailash, Lajpat Nagar, Vasant Vihar, Malviya Nagar and Lodhi Colony.

The cost of construction of each block would be about Rs. 1 crore. The civic agency said 76 firms have already approached them for this project.

“They will change the face of the city and they will be ready before the Games,” said MCD Commissioner KS Mehra.
The civic agency is also eyeing some big houses for developing the blocks.

“The idea is to give the responsibility of running these toilet blocks to a company with an established brand image. We will also allow advertisements on them for revenue generation,” Mehra said.

Mehra said the proposal was ready and would be tabled before the standing committee of the MCD soon. The complexes will be constructed on build-operate-and-transfer basis.

“Developers with a brand value of Rs 5,000 crore and above will construct these toilet blocks. Maintenance and house-keeping too would be privatised,” said Amiya Chandra, additional deputy commissioner of Remunerative Project cell of MCD.
The civic body said the earlier plan of giving these blocks to advertising agencies did not work because the agencies had no incentive to keep them clean.

The developers will maintain the toilet blocks for 20 years.

“They will be disabled friendly and have separate nappy changing counters, which is missing in most toilet complexes across the city,” said a senior MCD official on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.