The Indian Railways made a shift in its policy on public hygiene on the World Environment Day. It issued a circular on Tuesday to all the railway networks asking them to have pay-and-use toilets as an “essential public amenity.”
This means that functional pay-and-use toilets will be an essential service to passengers in all categories of stations. Public toilets at stations have been under criticism for quite some time due to poor maintenance and remaining non-functional at most times.
The detailed guidelines mention urinals, disabled-friendly toilets, at least one European-style toilet, adequate number of wash basins with soaps, good quality ceramic flooring and proper lighting as basic necessary amenities.
It also states that toilet attendants should be posted 24 hours, wearing proper badges with large readable tariff cards informing the public about the rates.
A small bathing unit can be optionally provided, but not in case of small island platforms like Nahur, Elphinstone Road and Curry Road.
The circular states that these guidelines are to be followed in case of all new awarded contracts.
It states that the service provider shall provide a complaint-free service and maintain a complaints and suggestions register.
The railways will have a right to impose fines if the desired level of cleanliness is not maintained.
Commuters would be charged up to Rs2 for using latrines and Rs5 for using bathrooms or both bathrooms and latrines.
However, no charge shall be levied for urinals.
Commuters welcomed the decision, but said that the local railways should execute it soon.
“This is a nice move. Public toilets at stations in Mumbai, especially the ladies ones, have been an old problem,” said Lavanya Mishra, a regular commuter by train in Mumbai.
