Mumbai: After Bhandup, BMC to inspect all public toilets

To address shortage of toilet and to stop open defecation, the BMC had last year announced construction of over 18,000 new toilets. The civic body has decided to build two and three-storey toilets, to overcome space constraints.

The collapsed public toilet at Bhandup in Mumbai on Saturday. Ganesh Shirsekar

In the wake of a toilet collapse in Bhandup claimed two lives on Saturday, the BMC will inspect all its old community/public toilets. The move, civic officials claimed, is to prevent such incidents in future. But according to civic officials, the toilet that collapsed at Bhandup was not maintained by the BMC. Residents of the area had got it built with the help of a former corporator.

BMC has conducted a structural audit of all toilets under its jurisdiction. But these toilets will be re-inspected on a ward level soon to prevent such incidents from recurring. “To make sure the toilet block structures are safe, we will conduct inspections at the ward level. The exercise is to just make sure that no life is in jeopardy and to prevent any incidents like the Bhandup one from occurring,” said a senior BMC official.

Babulal Devji (40) and Labhuben Jethwa (42) were killed after the floor of a community toilet caved into a septic tank around 6 am in Sai-Sadan Chawl, Bhandup West. Firemen struggled for six hours to remove the bodies with the help of other agencies. The firemen with the help of a National Disaster Response Force team managed to recover the bodies from the septic tank. “We had sought a report from the respective ward on the incident and it was ascertained that the toilet was not built or maintained by BMC. For our toilets, we had conducted a structural audit last year, officials had clear instructions to demolish and re-build or repair the toilet structures which are found to be dilapidated and weak,” said BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta.

To address the shortage of toilet and to stop open defecation, the BMC had last year announced construction of over 18,000 new toilets. The civic body has decided to build two and three-storey toilets, to overcome space constraints. The estimated cost of constructing 18,818 toilet blocks is Rs 376 crore. BMC also plans to pull down 11,170 toilets and make 15,774 new toilets in their place using improved design. “The city will get additional 4,604 toilet blocks in the place of old ones,” said a senior official. The remaining 3,044 toilet blocks will be completely new ones. The city currently has nearly 12,000 public toilets, most of them over a decade old.

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