Flush with Innovation: Pune Rolls Out ₹4.3 Crore High-Tech Toilets for Commuters and Visitors

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has sanctioned a daring new ₹4.31 crore plan to provide five air-conditioned, high-tech "smart toilets" at strategic city entry points and the Pune railway station. This follows even as the city struggles with maintenance and under-performance of its previous e-toilet schemes.

Key Highlights

The new project will install five AC smart toilets, mall restroom-inspired, with facilities like WiFi, charging points for mobile and laptops, and self-cleaning systems. Each of them is meant to provide a clean, comfortable, and contemporary experience for commuters and visitors.

Sites that have been planned are Katraj Chowk, Balewadi on the Pune-Mumbai Road, Shewalwadi Bus Depot on Pune-Solapur Road, Pune Railway Station, and Wagholi on Pune-Nagar Road. All the sites will be priced at ₹86 lakh to ₹86.4 lakh.

The smart toilets will be pay-and-use and advertising rights at the locations will be made available to maintain them regularly and provide revenue.

This project is in accordance with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's order to improve Pune's public sanitation facilities and make high-class public toilets available in busy areas.

There are approximately 1,200 public toilets in the city presently, most of which are in shabby condition, with the public regularly complaining about faulty plumbing, water cuts, and dirty facilities.

The PMC's earlier e-toilet initiative, rolled out in 2018 at a price tag of ₹2 crore sourced through former MP Anil Shirole, resulted in 11 hi-tech unmanned toilets being fitted in Pune. Poor maintenance, theft, and no long-term maintenance plan in place meant today just three of these are functioning.

Civic authorities now aim to shift the rest of the e-toilets to better-protected and visible locations in order to curb damage and make it easier to monitor.

Shivajinagar MLA Siddharth Shirole is already working with the PMC to revive and improve the e-toilet infrastructure, stressing the importance of better oversight and accountability.

In spite of criticism from citizen groups that high-tech solutions are being given more importance over clean, basic facilities, the PMC is placing its bets on this new generation of smart toilets to create a new benchmark for public sanitation in Pune.

Sources: Hindustan Times, Pune Mirror, My Pune Pulse, Mid-Day