Now, find public toilets in north Delhi through Google Maps

For easy access to public conveniences in the city, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has initiated a project for putting the details of these facilities on Google Maps.

On pilot basis, details of the restrooms and urinals in Karol Bagh Zone are placed on Google Maps. “We had asked the officials to visit all the 210 toilet complexes in this zone and obtain their exact latitude and longitude details for sharing it on Google. It took them three days to upload the information and now anyone can find their locations on smart phones, using GPS,” said Nitin Pramod, deputy commissioner, Karol Bagh Zone.

The civic agency has 1,163 urinals, 499 community toilet complexes, 41 women toilets and 318 waterless urinals in six zones — City, Karol Bagh, Chandni Chowk, Civil Lines, Rohini and Narela.

The details of the loos can also be accessed by typing the name of the road where the person is travelling. “Considering the people are not well acquainted with the boundaries of Karol Bagh or any other zone, they can simply search the list of MCDs toilets by typing the name of the road such as Pusa Road, Rohtak Road and Faiz Road,” said Pramod.

Officials said that the department had cleaned these complexes before uploading details. “Still if anyone has problem with cleaning arrangements then he/she can complaint on the numbers pasted outside the complex. However, the department is still in the process to complete repair work and arrange for water supply at some places,” said a North MCD official.

Following the implementation of this project in Karol Bagh zone, the sanitation department has started preparing the details of public toilets in the remaining five zones for uploading them on Google Maps.

According to the senior official from Department of Environment Management Services, the process of collecting the information will also help the staff to figure out the current status/condition of loos. “There could be complexes which are lying in shambles, do not exist anymore or poorly maintained by concessionaire. We will try to fix these problems over the period of time,” said official, North MCD.

At present, locating a public toilet is a challenging task and the only option left with people is to go to nearby restaurants and cafes. Having this information handy will make things much easier, said officials.

But if this development would help in increasing the number of users for MCD’s community toilets that remains a question mark. In most of the cases, people avoid using them due to poor maintenance.

“People don’t want to use these facilities even as last option. Most of them have no provision for water, lights and even doors are missing. Despite transferring the maintenance of such public toilets to the concessionaire nothing has changed. Similar is the case with public urinals as men can be seen peeing outside these complexes,” said Sanjay Bhargav, a trader at Chandni Chowk. It is important to sort out all these issues before starting such service, he added.