Hindustan Times 22.03.2010
MCD’s luxury loos to get café topsGet ready to loo and behold.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is all set to build fancy coffee house-cum-toilet complexes in major market areas ahead of the Commonwealth Games. These complexes, which will adhere to the green concept, will consist of coffee shops, flower-shops, fast-food joints, and offices. The civic agency claims that they have already been approached by various brands that have shown interest in this project.
“We are going to float tenders for this project by next week. Companies will have to create a prototype of the toilet complex before we finally award work to them,” said a senior MCD official. “The work on this project is likely to start by May. We want to change the way people think about public urinals.” “The design and choice of material will be done to ensure minimum consumption of electricity and water and solar panels will be installed keeping the green concept in mind.
These toilets will have special facilities for women, senior citizens, physically disabled.
“The idea is to give the responsibility of running these toilet blocks to a company with an established brand image. This way, they will ensure cleanliness of these toilet blocks to ensure that they make money out of this venture while ensuring that their reputation is not affected,” said the officials. “People will only come in to have coffee here if there is no foul-odour in the surrounding area. We will also allow advertising on these blocks for revenue generation,” added the official. The civic agency will have little or no role to play in the functioning of these complexes. The developers will also maintain these toilet blocks for a period of 30 years.”
