Navi Mumbai: NMMC to scrap e-toilets project after seven years of operation

The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has decided to scrap the e-toilets (electronic toilets) projects over maintenance problems. The contractor appointed for the maintenance backed out and most of the toilets are lying defunct. The civic body had set up 20 e-toilets across the city.

The first e-toilet was set up in 2015 along the Thane-Belapur road and subsequently, e-toilets were set up at important locations including Palm Beach road in the city. The civic body had then planned to set up around 100 e-toilets across the city as part of the Cleanliness Survey and Swachh Bharat Mission.

However, after seven years, the civic body has decided to scrap the e-toilets policy and now it will convert all e-toilets into a common toilet. Rajesh Narvekar, the municipal commissioner, said that there was a maintenance issue with the e-toilet. “The agency hired for maintenance backed out and even getting parts was also difficult,” said Mr Narvekar, adding that all the existing e-toilets will be converted into normal toilets so that they can be used.

E-toilets were fully automatically functional, with the door opening on insertion of Re coin, automatic lights, water flush, and tank refill and auto-cleaning process.

The civic body is known for adopting the latest technology in its day-to-day work. However, the feedback received for the e-toilets were not encouraging.

Meanwhile, a senior civic official informed that the NMMC area has more than 5700 toilet sheets in public including she-toilets. All these toilets are available on Google Maps and their location can be easily found through Google. It is widely used by citizens of Navi Mumbai as well as travelers traveling through the city.

The civic body has already received a Double Plus rating and Water Plus for open defecation free (ODF) city. The availability and cleanliness of toilet facilities is an important part of this and for this, vending machines have been installed in every public toilet to give feedback or suggestions. “Based on common citizens' feedback, the decision has been taken to scrap the project,” said an official from the Engineering Department.