Bhubaneswar: The capital’s urinal coverage got a boost on Wednesday with Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) getting a grant for construction of 200 standalone urinals at strategic locations.The urinals will come up mostly in the uncovered areas in selected 15 wards. Of 200, BMC has already completed construction of 30 urinals.BMC officials said some of the important places the urinals will be located are Unit-I Market, Rasulgarh bus stop, Bapuji Nagar, near Nayapali police station, Priyadarshini Market, Unit-VIII Boys High School, Indradhanu Market and near CRPF traffic.According to BMC deputy commissioner N Ganesh Babu in three zones under BMC control, places of people’s footfall were identified. “No fee will be charged for using the urinals. We have provision of user fee only in public toilets, where separate loo and bathing complex are there,” said Babu.In 2024, BMC in a survey identified 168 yellow spots (places in the city that have turned urinating points) so as to construct public toilets and urinals at most of those places. At some such spots, BMC planned beautification and landscaping for transformation.BMC officials said cost of construction of one toilet is Rs 6.5 lakh and around Rs 13 crore will be spent on 200 toilets.Babu said according to survey, there are yellow spots even at prominent locations, near banks, where cars are parked in Unit-III in Kharavela Nagar despite having a public toilet at stone’s throw away. “The places nearby big hotels, movie halls, bus stands and railways stations were also identified as yellow spots. We have included some of the surveyed places while constructing the urinals,” Babu said.BMC said yellow spots were identified to curb the practice of open urination. “Most of these urinals are meant for floating population and for city residents visiting markets and places. We are aware of people’s practice of even using a toilet boundary but not use the toilet for urination. That is the reason, vacant spaces, where people’s concentration is more frequent, we are developing them for urinals,” Babu added.
