Bhubaneswar, April 10: Citizens will have to wait some more for the hybrid toilets as civic body and its private partner, Sulabh International, are yet to execute the project.

Authorities have identified about 70 sites across the city to build the toilets, but the work on 54 sites are yet to begin, says the progress report.

Sources said construction at 51 sites got delayed because the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation was yet to acquire and hand over land to Sulabh. "We have started construction of the toilets at 19 sites and will complete the work by the end of June," said a senior civic body official.

In May last year, the corporation had inked a pact with Sulabh to build about 168 such toilets across the city in the next three years. In the first year, it was decided to complete construction on 70 sites. The deadline for that ended in March. The civic body had also decided to have at least three such facilities opened by December last year.

The corporation has failed to meet the deadline again because of problems pertaining to land acquisition. Tourism minister Ashok Panda had laid the foundation stones for the three hybrid toilets at Jayadev Vihar, Buddha Nagar and Brameshwarpatna in last July.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said they had already cleared about 54 sites and handed it over to Sulabh for construction. "Work orders for 35 toilets have been issued, while the construction at 19 sites are going on. There are some issues with the remaining sites for land," said Jena.

He said the civic body, along with the Sulabh officials, would make a joint inspection of the sites, where work could not be started till now to find out the reasons and solve the problems. "We will acquire the land on a priority basis and also look for alternative land wherever necessary. We want to finish the job on time," said the mayor.

The project is being executed under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation scheme. The toilets are called hybrid because both the public and slum dwellers will be able to use them. While the public will pay for using them, the slum dwellers will be provided with monthly passes.

Sulabh International has taken up the project in the design-build-operate-maintain-transfer mode - which means the executing agency will bear the cost of the project and recover it by charging the public for using the services.

Sources said that while the people living in slums would be allowed to use the toilets for Rs 50 per family per month, others had to pay for every individual use.

"There is a shortage of public toilets here, and the civic body should complete the job at the earliest," said Goutam Nagar resident Ritesh Mahana.