City to have 161 new public toilets, 84 for women

Of the new toilets, 48 toilets would be conventional while 22 would be eco-toilets. Apart from this, the civic body has also planned to set up She Toilets at 84 locations. 

“Presently, the construction of one conventional toilet with 6 seats is in progress. For 48 conventional toilets, letters of agreement have been issued for construction. Re-tender has been issued for She toilets. The tenders would be opened on January 28,” an official said. She toilets would be exclusively for women and the toilets are proposed under Nirbhaya funds.

As per the civic body data, there are as many as 1,245 public toilets in the city with a total seating capacity of 7,888. Of them, 872 are conventional type of toilets and 151 are eco-toilets. Apart from these, there are 31 bio toilets and 21 Namma toilets.

Meanwhile, the Chennai Corporation has requested corporate firms and banks to take over the maintenance of public toilets in the city under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. The corporate firms could earn revenue from advertising on the walls of the toilets and the banks can have their ATM centres.