Pay-and-use toilets to be back in Mumbai, new policy soon

More than a year after the civic body made public pay-and-use toilets free, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is now planning to bring back the pay-and-use

More than a year after the civic body made public pay-and-use toilets free, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is now planning to bring back the pay-and-use model and regulate the fee of the toilets under a new policy. The civic body took this decision as its pilot project to run public toilets without charging a fee was not found to be feasible.

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The BMC had scrapped the pay-and-use toilet model in 2018 considering the exploitation by the toilets’ operators. “Operators were not only failing to maintain the toilets but were also overcharging and restricting the public from accessing the toilets,” said a civic official.

The BMC has now decided to frame a new policy to regulate public toilets. The civic body is also planning to build new toilets with modern designs, especially at crowded places. “The policy is still in process and we are considering a lot of factors such as shared revenue for operators through advertisements. Considering that maintenance of toilets with better facilities comes at a cost, standard rates of user fee will be revised. However, nothing has been finalised yet,” said Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner.

In its new policy, the civic body has planned to design the new toilets as per the requirement, space and the area features. It is also looking at various revenue models such as advertising and involving corporate companies under their CSR model. “The policy will also focus on keeping a strict check on these toilets and violations of contract conditions will lead to termination of agreements,” said a civic official.