KATHMANDU, Feb 5: Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) office has initiated process to build at least 284 public toilets at 57 various locations across the metropolis. 

The KMC has started the work as per the report submitted by a Task Force formed earlier to Deputy Mayor Hariprabha Khadgi on Monday. The Task Force recommended building additional 284 public toilets in Kathmandu to fulfill the requirement of commuters.

The Task Force has identified 57 new places where public toilets can be built. They include Teku chowk, Kalimati, Sitapaila, Machhapokhari, Chabahil, Babarmahal, Koteshwar, Balaju, Tripureshwar, Sundhara, and Jamal.

A task force under deputy chief of KMC had investigated the current situation of public toilets and concluded that most of the public toilets were unhygienic and dirty. “We are developing working procedure about the operation of public toilets. All operators, who do not follow the rule, will be punished,” KMC officials told Republica.

Deputy Chief of KMC, Khadgi said that the existing public toilets did not seem like public toilets as they are covered by petty businesses. “KMC will create a committee in every ward to investigate the situation of public toilets and will be working soon to improve the existing public toilets,” said Khadgi.

Coordinator of the committee, Dhurba Kumar Kaphle, said in the first phase they plan to upgrade and put in place mandatory infrastructures in the existing public toilets such as water facilities, dustbins and babysit for children. “By coordinating with the shopping malls, department stores and petrol pumps, we will find space for building public toilets. After analyzing the population density, we have concluded that 220 new public toilets will help to meet the current need,” said Kaphle.

Each year, KMC rents out the public toilets to private sector through a bidding process, generating around Rs 9 million in revenue from restrooms. A public toilet in the Valley draws an average of 3,000 people each day. For most of the operators, it is an extremely lucrative business. But most of these toilets are poorly maintained and even unfit for use.

According to the government census of 2011, the KMC alone has a population of around one million while the population of Kathmandu district is nearly two million excluding the migrant workers, students and other people staying temporarily in the capital city. Officials estimate that the total estimated population of the entire Kathmandu Valley is around five million.

 
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