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A month after requesting the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) to halt a Rs 488-crore tender for 14,000 conventional community toilets in Mumbai's slum areas and instead introduce pre-cast facilities at a minimum of 500 sites, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, the suburban guardian minister of Mumbai, has reversed his stance. Lodha has now urged the municipality to proceed with the tender.
In a recent communication addressed to the municipal commissioner, Iqbal Chahal, Lodha conveyed that discontinuing the tender – especially when it was in its final phase – in favour of pre-cast toilets would lead to delays in public toilet construction and inconvenience to citizens. He thus recommended that the tender process be continued. He also suggested a separate tender process for constructing new or supplementary public toilets through corporate entities. This, he believed, would ensure that construction commences concurrently and thus welcomed the participation of corporate firms in this endeavour.
In response to Lodha's initial July 5 directive, the BMC had indeed suspended the Rs 488-crore tender despite being at an advanced stage. Instead, they contemplated procuring precast public toilets via corporate firms, utilizing funds from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Expressions of interest were invited for these new toilets, while the original tender was temporarily put on hold, as confirmed by an anonymous civic official.
This sequence of events highlights the dynamic decision-making in Mumbai's municipal administration regarding public sanitation infrastructure. The initial halt of the substantial tender followed by a shift back to the traditional tender approach, all under the guidance of Mangal Prabhat Lodha, has sparked criticism for its inconsistency. The situation underscores the importance of well-considered decisions to address the pressing needs of citizens in slum areas, particularly when it comes to fundamental facilities like public toilets.
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