Down The Drain: ₹2 Crore E-Toilets Built In Pune In 2018 Now Lie Defunct

A provision of Rs 2 crore was made in 2018 for the construction of state-of-the-art e-toilets at 11 places in Pune city from the MPLAD fund of the then MP of Pune Anil Shirole.

The civic body then placed an order of Rs 2 crore with Eram Scientific Solutions for the construction and maintenance of e-toilets at 11 locations for one year. Since the technology was developed by the company itself, the contract was given to this company without floating a tender. As per the contract, the company installed and maintained these e-toilets for over one year (till the end of 2019), but after that, the company did not transfer the technology to the PMC and did not show interest in taking the maintenance contract further.

The locations of the e-toilets are as follows: 1) Opposite Rupali Hotel 2) Ramoshi Vasti 3) Hirwai Garden 4) Sambhaji Udyan 5) Model Colony, Om Super Market 6) Tingre Garden, Viman Nagar 7) Nilayam Bridge 8) Sinhagad Road STP 9) Near Wadia College 10) Tukai Hill 11) LMD Garden, Bavdhan.

In 2023, the civic body floated a fresh tender to restart operations, and Aditya Enterprises was awarded a work order to repair and operate five e-toilets on a pilot basis. The contractor was allocated ₹14 lakh for repairs and ₹7,000 per toilet per month for maintenance. Out of these 11 toilets, only three are in working condition even after revising the tender.

The e-toilets provide unmanned sanitation and automated systems although the facilities came with nominal charges, many people used them due to convenience, safety and sophistication.

Vivek Velankar, social activist, said, "When there is a huge shortage of simple and clean public toilets in the city, why was the huge amount spent on building e-toilets instead of building them on a large scale? I request the authorities to order and convert all these e-toilets into simple toilets and provide the service of simple but clean public toilets to the citizens."

Meanwhile, speaking to The Free Press Journal, Deputy Commissioner (Solid Waste Management Department) Sandeep Kadam, said, "The repair work is ongoing, and currently three e-toilets are working. We are replacing a few electrical parts and it will take another three months to complete the repair work to restart these e-toilets and a few of them have been damaged by citizens."

news