The BMC is, once again, planning to set up community toilets, the shortage of which due to lack of space has been a long-standing problem. The solid waste management department of the civic body is in the process of floating a tender to construct 10,000 community toilet seats in slums. An earlier plan—which involved installing more than 22,000 toilets—was scrapped mid-way as the corporation didn’t finalise locations to construct 6,500 toilet seats. 

The latest endeavour is referred to as lot 12 by officials and the BMC wasn’t as successful as it expected with the earlier lots. As part of the previous lot, the corporation ordered the construction of 22,774 toilets across the city in January 2019. The aim was to set up 16,703 toilets on the site of 14,173 extant washrooms and an additional 6,071 toilets at new locations. But after three years, the BMC scrapped the plan. Though 12,809 toilets had been built and 3,352 were under construction, the civic body realised that the construction of 6,613 toilet seats hadn’t started due to lack of space.