Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has decided to set up 178 integrated smart washrooms (toilets) free of cost across the city. The corporation has invited tenders to take up the project in Build, Finance, Operate & Transfer (DBFOT) basis. Recently, a model smart washroom, named as ‘Loo Café’, was piloted in Serilingampally zone and received great appreciation from the public.
The GHMC will hand over suitable sites to selected agencies for installation of the smart washrooms under certain terms and conditions. The agencies shall install the smart toilets with separate entries for men, women and differently-abled persons and with all required facilities such as water, ramps, handrails and napkin vending and disposal arrangement for women. They have to operate and maintain the toilets without collecting usage charges from the public.
As a concession, the agencies will be given permission to run a Café and provide water, ATM, e-commerce ATM and advertisement panels for revenue generation under the terms and conditions of the contract. Initially, the GHMC planned to collect usage charges for utilisation of the wash rooms but later it was decided to float tenders with no user charges.
After a pre-bid meeting, to encourage more bidders to participate, NGOs registered under the Societies Act and having the required technical and financial capacities have also been made eligible to participate in the tender and the concession period was also increased to 15 years.
The bid submission date was extended to August 16. The GHMC is working to make ready a few such smart washrooms by November 19, the “World Toilet Day”, for public utilisation across the city. To promote access to safe sanitation and hygienic toilet facilities for enhancing public health, maintain human dignity and personal safety of the public, the GHMC has provided various public toilets such as pay and use toilets and she-toilets.
