KMC to come up with 5 bio-toilets

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to come up with five bio-toilets in the city as a pilot project. The units will come up near bus stands or marketplaces.

"Mayor Firhad Hakim has already approved the decision for such modernised bio-toilets. The Central Store will look after the setting up of these facilities. Two will be made in our Entally workshop, while a private organisation will come up with another three," said Tarak Singh, Member, Mayor-in-Council (Central Store), KMC.

A senior official of the Central Store said that many people suffer from diabetes in the city, so bio-toilets at strategic points like bus stands and marketplaces will be of immense benefit to them.

The toilets will be western style and each one of them will have a basin and a mirror. These will come up in places where there is no problem with power supply. It will have facilities to run in dual mode- both through solar power and normal sewage pattern.

It may be mentioned that construction of pay-in toilets has reduced open defecation in the city. The toilets that have been constructed in areas surrounded by slums have changed the toilet habits of the slum-dwellers, said a senior KMC official.

It may be recalled that the state government had launched Mission Nirmal Bangla to stop open defecation in the villages, much before Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. At present, all the districts in Bengal are open-defecation-free.