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Five years after the state government launched a proposal to build public toilets along highways, the plan has remained in cold storage with people struggling to find usable ones that are clean as they travel to destinations by road. The state had 17,757 km of highways in 2019, but very few toilets along the way. It has added thousands of kilometres over the years, yet nothing has changed — toilets are still absent along picturesque roads.
The lack of clean restrooms hurts women the most — when they hold their urine, they contract bladder and urinary tract infections. It forces them to avoid drinking water for hours and young girls in rural areas are known to drop out of school since there are no toilets. Despite serious health implications, and campaigns by NGOs, the state government has not built the promised 400 toilets along the highways. Entrepreneur Meera Krishnan was travelling with her family from Pune to Raigad recently. She said she could not find a single clean toilet along the entire 114km highway stretch.
The food plazas that have come up on the way too had ill-maintained washrooms. A few homestays and hotels on the route allowed travellers to use their toilets for a fee. She ultimately requested some locals to allow her children to use the washrooms in their homes. Krishnan said though the government makes claims of open defecation free urban and rural areas, it has failed to provide decent toilets along the highways. Maithali Dey recently travelled with her friends to Mahabaleshwar. The only places they found restrooms were at food plazas and petrol pumps.
The Gaya Ji Dham Dharamshala is proposed to be built on around 4.38 acre land of the local infectious disease hospital. Tourism department secretary Abhay Kumar Singh conducted an inspection of different sites in Gaya and Bodh Gaya ahead of the Pitripaksh fair and instructed the district administration to get the entire plot levelled, and the old and dilapidated structures demolished soon.
Meeting on proposal for toilets this month, says PWD minister Chavan
Dey said on the one hand, the government has been promoting the success of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan and on the other hand, there are no toilets for women along the highways. “We had to request a hotel owner and pay an amount of Rs 100 to use the toilet facility for the five of us,” he added. Complaints from travellers have finally moved the government to revive the proposal first mooted in 2018 when the state public works department had proposed the construction of toilet facilities on highways. Public works department minister Ravindra Chavan said he was aware of the earlier announcements and would relaunch the scheme and make it operational. “I am aware that there have been several complaints raised about the lack of toilet facilities along most highways. We have dedicated spaces at 200 locations in the state to build toilets. Just announcing or constructing the toilets will not help. It has to be fully functional with water facilities,” he said.
He said that a meeting would be held in September and the proposal would be cleared by the month-end. He added that it would be called the highway toilet policy. To make it feasible, officials said that they plan to use the land belonging to the PWD department initially and work out a system to ensure that the facilities are operational. “It should have enough water supply and be well-maintained. Otherwise, the purpose of such an initiative is pointless,” a senior PWD official said. Tourist groups too feel that Maharashtra lacks adequate and proper highway toilet facilities compared to other states, In Karnataka, the facilities are much better, they said. “There are more hotels and food plazas in the neighbouring state and they are clean,” Srinivas Rao, a regular commuter from Pune to Bengaluru, said.
Unakoti, known for its centuries old ‘Shaivite rock’ sculptures in the northern part of Tripura, will soon have a cafeteria, toilets, drinking water and other facilities for travellers, a senior tourism department official said here. The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) is the custodian of the Unakoti rock carvings created in the 8th-9th century on Raghunandan hills, about 180 km from the state capital Agartala.
Mumtaz Sheikh, who started the Right to Pee movement in Maharashtra, has been following up with the state government and highway authorities. She said they travelled along the highways to find that there are hardly any toilets that can be used by women, except those in the food plazas. “The one or two which the government is claiming are operational are hardly maintained and unfit for use,’’ Sheikh said.
PWD officials said they identified spots at a distance of 50-60 km and toilet construction is on in some places. Construction of toilets had started in Lonavla, Katraj ghat, Khed Shivapur, Velhe, Alandi and Dehu villages. Sheikh said they have been demanding toilets every 20-25km.
“The PWD has cited water and land issues for constructing these toilets. We have suggested that locals could help in construction or have a toilet on public-private partnership,” she added. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) early last month announced it would initiate a land-pooling scheme for the construction of wayside amenities like restaurants, auto workshops, fuel stations, toilets, and other facilities along the highways it constructs.
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