Answer: Twelve years. A public toilet block built by the Municipal Corporation in Mahim in 2004 is still not operational. The Gordion Knot? Drainage
While the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proclaimed that it will make Mumbai free of open defecation by 2019, it has left a huge toilet block, with 46 loos, near the popular Maharashtra Nature Park in Mahim, locked for 12 years. The BMC has said it was a faulty drainage system that had forced them to keep the toilet block locked ever since it was inaugurated in January 2004.
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Inaugurated by the then political biggies in 2004, this public toilet near the Maharashtra Nature Park should be operational by August end, says an eternally optimistic BMC. Pics/Datta Kumbhar
When mid-day asked why it took the BMC 12 years to fix the drainage system, Ramakand Biradar, Assistant Municipal Commissioner (G/ North), said, “We are in the process of fixing the problems with the toilet block and within a month, it will be ready for public use. The drainage, water and electricity connections have been pending and once the rest of the work is over we will be providing that, too.”
The public toilet block outside Maharashtra Nature Park
He did not, however, have any answer to why it took the BMC 12 years to fix the drainage problem.
Advocate and RTI activist Nikunj Mehta, a resident of Sion, had asked the BMC the same question via an RTI query. "I put in an RTI application with the BMC when I kept seeing year after year that the public toilet remained shut.
And, the nature park has visitors all year round with no toilet facilities nearby,” said Mehta. In reply to his query, the BMC said, "Due to technical difficulties in disposing of sewage from the said toilet block into the sewer line, the toilet block has not yet been commissioned."
The BMC said this block is expected to be opened to the public by August-end. They are also in the process of building a toilet block inside the park.
When mid-day visited the spot, we could see construction workers inside the ground-plus-one-storey block and the entrance closed off by a black metal door. The walls and ceilings were in the process of being cemented and windows were being fixed. The outside walls remained covered in moss.
The plaque outside, which is now covered in filth and muck, has the names of politicians and BMC officials who were responsible for its construction. The block was inaugurated by the then Speaker of the Lok Sabha Manohar Joshi, while Mahadeo Deole was the Mayor of Mumbai. The BMC had spent Rs 16.04 lakh on constructing it back then.
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